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Notes on the History and 

Political Institutions of the 

Old World 



By 

Edward Preissig, Ph.D. 

Author of" Short Outlihe of the History of Austria-Hungary 



G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS 

NEW YORK AND LONDON 

Cbe "Knickerbocker press 

1906 






LIBRARY of CONGRESS 
Two CoDies Received 

JUN 11 1906 

i Copyright Entry 

tos CL' xjfc. no. 



COPY B. 



Copyright, 1906 

BY 

EDWARD PREISSIG 



"2 



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TTbe fmlcherbocfecr press, flew Jtjocfc 



PREFACE 

NO claim of originality is made for the con- 
tents of the following pages. They have 
grown out of a set of student's notes, compiled 
in preparation for an examination, and for this 
reason, and because of some technical difficulties, 
it has not been found possible to insert refer- 
ences. The latter would not have increased the 
usefulness of the book in the hands of a student, 
and the advanced scholar will find, in the bibli- 
ography preceding the index to this volume, 
ample material for a more extended and thorough 
course of reading. 

The large indebtedness of the author in com- 
piling these notes to one and all of the works 
enumerated in the bibliography is hereby gladly 
acknowledged, especial mention being made of 
Professor Wilson's The State, upon which reliable 
treatise most of the notes treating of the de- 
velopment of the political institutions of Europe 
have been based, and of Professor Myers's admir- 
able histories, which have furnished the frame- 
work for the historical notes. 

According to the plan of the work, the same 
ground had in many instances to be gone over 



IV 



PREFACE 



twice, or even three times, to permit of a fuller 
explanation of some of the features of the politi- 
cal growth of the different nations, and this fact 
must serve to excuse the repetitions that have 
found their way into the following pages in 
consequence. 

E. P. 

New York, September, 1905. 



CONTENTS 



SECTION 
I. 


General Introduction .... 
Ancient History: 


PAGE 

3 


4- 


China 


6 


iS- 


Egypt 


16 


27. 


The Earliest Forms of Govern- 






ment ...... 


3i 


37- 


Chald/Ea, Assyria, and Babylonia . 


59 


49. 


The Hebrews . . . . ■ 


73 


54- 


The Phoenicians .... 


81 


55- 


The Persians . . . . 
Greece : 


84 


61. 


(A) The History of Greece . 


92 


127. 


(B) The Governments of Greece . 
Rome : 


167 


158. 


,(A) The History of Rome 


203 


247. 


(B) The Government of Rome 


299 



Mediaeval History: 
292. Introduction . . . . -355 

The Dark Ages : 

294. (A) The Teutonic Tribes . . 357 

301. (B) Spread of Christianity . . 365 

v 



VI 



CONTENTS 



SECTION 
306. 

3I4- 

3I7- 

3I9- 



384. 



394- 

398- 
410. 

414. 
420. 



426. 



(C) The Moslem Power . 

(D) Restoration of the Western 

Empire . 

(E) The Northmen . 

The Age of Revival : 

(A) Teutonic Political Institu- 



Modern History: 

Introduction .... 

The Era of the Reformation : 

(A) Spain .... 

(B) England .... 

(C) The Revolt of the Nether- 

lands .... 

(D) France .... 
(£) The Thirty Years' War . 

The Era of the Political Revolution : 
(A) The Ascendancy of France 



PAGE 
370 

382 
385 





TIONS .... 


• 389 


337 


(B) The Papal Power . 


409 


34i 


(C) The Norman Conquest 


418 


343 


(D) The Crusades . 


. 421 


354 


(E) The Turanian Power 


437 


35 6 


(F) Growth of the Towns 


439 


360 


(G) The Revival of Learning 


445 


365 


(H) England .... 


45° 


369 


(/) France .... 


454 


375 


(J) Spain .... 


460 


378 


(K) Germany . 


462 


382 


(L) Italy .... 


467 



471 

482 
487 

501 
509 
514 

520 



CONTENTS Vli 



PAGE 
525 

533 

55i 
557 
562 

566 

594 
610 
613 
617 

639 
650 

659 
663 
665 



SECTI 
430 


ON 

(B) The Government of France 


441 


(O England . 


458 


(D) Early Political Institutions 




of England . 


465 


(E) Russia 


469 


(F) Prussia 


472 


(G) The French Revolution . 


492 


(H) The Government of France . 


512 


(I) Russia 


516 


(K) Germany 


519 


(L) The Government of Germany . 


539 


(M) Switzerland . 


55o 


(N) Sweden and Norway 


554 


(0) Italy 


557 


(P) England 


558 


(Q) The Government of England . 




Bibliography ...... 




Index . 



691 

693 



LIST OF MAPS. 







Facing 
Page 


I 


. China .... 


6 


2 


Egypt ... 


16/ 


3 


Assyrian Empire 


59 


4 


Palestine 


73 


5 


Persian Emptre 


84 


6 


Ancient Greece 


92 


7 


Ancient Rome . 


203 


8 


Roman Empire . 


269 


9 


Europe in 485 . 


• 357 


o 


Europe after 1815 


592 



Ancient History 

From the Beginning of Historical Informa- 
tion to the Downfall of the Western 
Empire ( ? B.C. to A.D. 476) 



GENERAL INTRODUCTION 

i. Definition of History. — History (from the 
Greek {atopic*, knowledge obtained by inquiry) 
can be denned as the narrative of past events, 
and may relate either to past developments of 
the human race as a whole, this being the story of 
man-life as such (ethnological history), or record 
the results of man-life under the influence of in- 
stinct and reason, forming a narrative of the 
accomplishments of the human race (general 
history) . 

Ethnological history does not treat of the re- 
sults of human activity on earth, but gives an 
account of the races of mankind in their essential 
powers and capacities. General history, the 
subject of this study, gives a narrative of facts 
and deeds, the social organisations men have 
created, the wars they have fought, and the re- 
sults of their peaceful labours. 

The field of history is limited by the insuffi- 
cient data left of the time which must be taken 
as the beginning of human existence and the 
space on earth occupied by human beings. The 
question of the beginning of man-life on earth, 
while^one of the greatest fascination, has not 

3 



4 ANCIENT HISTORY 

been answered to satisfaction, and the memory 
as to when and where human life had its origin 
can only lead to more perplexing questions as 
to the beginning of the reasons for its existence. 
This question cannot be made a subject of general 
history, there being no contemporary witnesses 
to attest to the facts related, and history must 
record authentic testimony to its statements. 
This testimony is not necessarily a written re- 
cord, but may be a fact transmitted from gener- 
ation to generation simply by means of memory 
and oral utterance. 

While true history begins with the advent of 
man on earth, written history cannot go beyond 
the year of about 4000 B.C., although even at 
that remote period there were in existence races 
of a very high civilisation. 

The investigations of history are based on the 
accomplishments of other sciences, from which 
deductions are made as to the various stages of 
development through which man has passed arid 
finally attained his present state. Astronomy 
must be named as the first, as dealing with the 
heavenly bodies and describing the laws of their 
motion; geology, dealing with the past and 
present state and condition of the earth, the 
changes our planet has undergone and is to 
undergo in the future; archaeology, which in- 
vestigates the traces of ancient art, architecture, 
language, customs, etc. ; anthropology, treating 
uf the general physical and mental developments 



GENERAL INTRODUCTION 5 

of the human race; ethnology, the science of 
the races of men and their relations ; and, finally, 
ethnography, which gives a classification and de- 
scription of the human race. 

2. Divisions of General History. — General his- 
tory is divided into three principal periods : the An- 
cient, the Mediaeval, and the Modern. The range 
of ancient history is from the earliest times which 
we have any records of, to the fall of the Western 
Roman Empire; mediaeval history extends from 
the fall of the Western Roman Empire to the 
discovery of America by Columbus; and modern 
history covers the period following, up to the 
present time. 

3. Divisions of Ancient History. — Ancient his- 
tory may be divided into two parts. In the 
first the Oriental nations are traced, and they 
are followed by the early history of European 
peoples, especially the Greeks and the Romans. 
With the rise of Grecian power and the first ex- 
pedition of the Persians against Greece (492 B.C.) 
the first part of ancient history terminates, and 
the second part, full of heroic deeds and intel- 
lectual accomplishments, is ushered in, marking 
the growth and glory and final decline of ancient 
Greece, until Greek culture, following the west- 
ward trend of history, is passed on to their heirs, 
the Romans. 



CHINA 

4. General Sketch. — The nations that have 
played a prominent part in the history of the 
world belong almost exclusively to the Caucasian 
race. The Chinese, belonging to the Mongolian, 
nevertheless in early time reached a high de- 
gree of culture, but they seem to have reached 
a final point of development very long ago, be- 
yond which they were unable to go; and ever 
since they have remained a stagnant national- 
ity. Even such teachers as Confucius, who in 
the sixth century before Christ was instrumental 
in spreading a cleaner code of morals among his 
people, were unable to raise the Chinese to a 
higher plane of intellectual development. China 
had the oldest civilisation of any country, except 
perhaps Egypt. The beginning is placed by 
some before 3000 B.C., when some Turanians set 
foot on Chinese soil and occupied the valley of 
the Yellow River. The government, an im- 
perial monarchy, has been preserved from the 
ancient times. 

The natural frontiers of China in the north 
and west are mountain chains and desert regions, 
while in the east and south China is bordered 

6 



CHINA 



by the sea. The soil is exceptionally fertile and 
produces practically everything needful for the 
support of the people. 

In extent the country is equal to Europe, ex- 
cepting Russia. Even in the oldest times agri- 
culture was an accepted occupation of the people, 
and in order to provide suitable irrigation large 
canals were constructed, transforming the fields 
into veritable gardens. 

5. Early History. — In old documents Fo-Hi is 
sometimes mentioned as the founder of the 
State. About the early history of China very 
little is known. Yao is named as the ruler in 
2300 b.c, and Wu-Wang in 1122 assumed the 
reins, inaugurating the so-called Chow dynasty, 
which reigned from 112 2 until 255 b.c. The 
dynasty of Tsin followed in 255, remaining on 
the throne until 206 b.c, when the Han rulers 
(206 b.c until 221 a.d.) assumed the sovereignty. 
From 221 a.d. dates the beginning of the "Era 
of the Three Kingdoms," an age of civil war 
and bloodshed, which continued with little in- 
terruption until 590 a.d., when order was again 
restored by Yang-Kian, the founder of the Suy 
dynasty. 

6. The Written Chinese Language. — The con- 
sideration of the Chinese language reveals some 
interesting facts. 

The number of characters in the written 
Chinese language is estimated at from 25,000 to 
60,000, and of these there are required for use 



8 ANCIENT HISTORY 

about 5000. The written language is more 
difficult than the spoken language, which con- 
sists of hardly more than 600 syllabic sounds. 
However, by various forms of intonation and 
speech they serve for all purposes. The written 
language consists of a variety of characters 
which can be divided into six classes as follows : 

The characters of the first class are of hiero- 
glyphic origin (characters representing outlines 
of objects), number about 600, and are called 
" siang-hing." The second are characters repre- 
senting ideas (idiographic), instead of visible 
things. The third class, "hwuy-4," consists of 
a combination of both. The inverted signs, 
" chuen-choo," constitute the fourth class, and as 
a rule reverse the meaning of the sense repre- 
sented. The fifth class, " chia-chieh," represents 
objects of sense by metaphor. So for instance 
" chi," signifying "arrow," means "to the point." 
These classes average about 600 characters each, 
and all are hieroglyphic, idiographic, or deter- 
minative characters. The last class, " chi di- 
shing" is the only one representing phonetic 
symbols and consists of about 15,000 signs. 

The study of the Chinese written language in- 
volves the knowledge of some 20,000 characters 
and considering the statement that the printed 
signs are again different from the written hand, 
the magnitude of the task can be conjectured. 

7. The Spoken Language. — As to the spoken 
language, it is to be marvelled at indeed, implying 



CHINA 9 

the representation of about 30,000 words of 
different meanings by the use of only about 
600 words, or rather syllables, the spoken lan- 
guage consisting of monosyllables only. This 
object is attained by about eight different in- 
tonations given to each syllable, which in each 
change of tone thus gains a different meaning. 
The Western ear is not sufficiently trained to 
the delicate phonetic shadings of Eastern in- 
tonation, and proficiency in the Chinese language 
can be reached only by long-continued residence 
among the natives. 

The principal characterisation of the language 
is the entire absence of inflection of words, which 
never change their form. The grammatical re- 
lation of words in Chinese is indicated in some 
instances by their relative position in the sen- 
tence, by the relations of their meanings, and 
by many other means as remarkable as the 
language itself. Another strange characteristic 
is the possibility of using one and the same word 
in one instance as a verb, in another as a noun, 
etc. 

8. Chinese Literature. — The most important 
products of Chinese literature, held sacred to 
this day, are the Five Classics, for some of which 
an age of as much as 3000 years is claimed. 
These, with the Four Classics of later dates, com- 
prise the teachings which in China constitute the 
basis of all learning. 

Of the Five Classics the Book of Rites is said 



IO ANCIENT HISTORY 

to have been written over 3000 years ago. 
Even to-day it is the guide for all social, domes- 
tic, and religious intercourse. The Book of Odes, 
Book of Changes, Book of History, and the Spring 
and Autumn Annals are attributed directly to 
Confucius, the great Chinese moralist, but it is 
believed that only the last was written by him. 
The Four Classics, of which three were written 
by pupils of Confucius (about 500 B.C.), and the 
fourth by Mencius (about 300 b.c), are the 
Doctrine of the Mean, Confucian Analects, Great 
Learning, and the Works of Mencius. 

During Emperor Che-Hwang-Hi's reign (about 
220 b.c), Chinese literature suffered a great loss 
by his edict ordering the burning of almost all 
the ancient writings, and only the people's 
reverence for their ancestors, which caused them 
to hide the proscribed books that had been 
handed down from father to son, saved the 
works from being entirely lost to posterity. 

Reading is a knowledge possessed by nearly 
all Chinese, and intellectually the Chinese people 
are more on one level than almost any other 
nation of the world. 

9. Government. — The Chinese are governed by 
an Emperor, whose power is restricted only by 
customs and precedent, but his position in relation 
to his subjects is also that of a patriarch, who, 
in accordance with the teachings of the Nine 
Classics, is to hold himself responsible for any 
existing discord among his people, because of 



CHINA 1 1 

the proof furnished by any such discontent that 
he had failed to act with the competency neces- 
sary to the proper fulfilment of his duties toward 
his people. 

The Nine Classics having been adopted as a 
part of the constitution of China, civil servants 
are required to be thoroughly versed in the 
teachings of the ancient writings, and none are 
enrolled in the service of the government without 
passing a competitive examination. The Chinese 
have had this system of civil service in operation 
for centuries, and, judged in relation to the re- 
quirements of a government designed to serve 
but the aspirations of the people themselves, it 
must be pronounced perfect, and our own efforts 
of late years to establish a similar system must 
yield a very unsatisfactory result in comparison. 

10. China, a Stagnant Nation. — The geographic 
isolation of China must be set down as the reason 
for their non-intercourse with the other peoples 
of the world. Their characteristic trait of exclu- 
siveness and contentedness may also account for 
their having supplemented the natural barriers 
against the outside world, the oceans, the deserts, 
and the mountains, by building the celebrated 
Chinese Wall, which was erected by Che-Hwang- 
Hi, to prevent the invasions of the Huns. The 
above-mentioned traits of the Chinese people, 
considered together with the ethnic uniformity of 
a nation numbering nearly 500,000,000 people, 
and with the condition of geographical isolation 



12 ANCIENT HISTORY 

added, explain to some extent the absence of 
Chinese influence upon the progress of the world, 
while the contradictory character of the Chinese, 
which summarily abhors all customs of the 
Western races, and the direct opposite of their 
manners and customs when compared with our 
own, is in a great measure accountable for their 
passive position in the line of great nations. It 
is only very recently that European influences 
have made themselves felt and have removed 
some of the obstacles to international intercourse, 
but whether this action was in accordance with 
the spirit and desire of the Chinese themselves, 
or whether the issue was forced upon them by 
circumstances, is a question that may well be 
left open to debate. 

ii. Religion. — The three principal religions of 
China, if such they may be called, are Buddhism, 
Taoism, and Confucianism, and to these, for a 
later period, may be added Mohammedanism, 
although the followers of the last faith are not 
so numerous. 

Religion, in our own accepted sense of the 
word, can hardly be said to exist in China, for 
they feel no reverence, no awe, no duty, toward 
a Supreme Being, God, or to supernatural beings. 
They have the above-named systems of religion, 
and the nearest approach to our own definition 
of religion is their worship of ancestors, who 
indeed, in their eyes, have been elevated to such 
a standard of divinity that their adoration is a 



CHINA 1 3 

genuine reverence, while their religious systems 
are accepted with the spirit of indifference in- 
herent in the people. 

12. Taoism. — "Lao-Tse," or " Tao-Teh-King, " 
the founder of Taoism, is the oldest of the 
philosophers, having lived about 700 b.c. His 
teachings are in the form of a book of not more 
than 5000 words, but the terse, concise state- 
ments permit of an extended use of his philosophy. 
Taoism, as practised at present, is nothing more 
than an elaboration of the doctrines of Con- 
fucius, but the plain rites of the latter cult are 
covered by a mass of mystic symbols and super- 
stitious practices. It comprises a spirit of fatal- 
ism, bidding the professors of the faith to look 
upon death as a dark passage, but urging them 
not to try to escape from it. Among other 
things, it teaches contentedness with as little as 
possible in life, and especially commands isola- 
tion from all foreign peoples. 

13. Buddhism. — Buddhism may be regarded 
as reformed Brahmanism, and can readily be 
compared to Protestantism as related to Ca- 
tholicism. The relentless teachings having prac- 
tically paved the way for a more liberal doctrine, 
Sakya Gautama, or Buddha, made his appearance 
in Northern India in the sixth century b.c. with 
a new book of thought and dogmas. He had a 
great following during life, but the hold of 
Brahmanism was too strong to yield its place to 
Buddhism, although the old, intolerant doctrine 



14 ANCIENT HISTORY 

of Brahmanism was sufficiently revised to allow 
a more liberal and acceptable interpretation of 
its teachings. Buddhism attained its widest 
spread outside of the country where it had been 
conceived, and to-day it is professed by nearly 
one -third of the people of the world. As a reason 
for the spreading of this philosophical system of 
religion can be assigned its comparative liberality, 
the abolition of the many irrational and dis- 
proportionate methods of punishment in ex- 
piation of sin, and the extension of the privileges 
of religion to all classes. 

14. Confucius. — Confucius, among the Chinese, 
bears the same position in the estimation of the 
people as Christ among the Christians. As has 
been the fate of most of the prophets, his life 
was crowned with many vicissitudes, and while 
even during his lifetime he attained a high 
reputation, it was not until after his death that 
his fame became universal. In sharp contrast 
to Buddha, Mohammed, etc., Confucius did not 
claim to have received his doctrines from some 
supernatural sources, and his religion is far 
different from the sense of the word in which it 
is accepted by the Western nations. His religion 
contains dogmas of duty and humanity only, 
and he taught them from a human standpoint, 
never speaking of God or destiny. The relations 
of emperor to his subjects, of husband to wife, of 
father to son, these were some of the subjects 
of his teachings, and his sole object was to make 



CHINA 1 5 

man superior in every respect. Thus he con- 
fined himself to a field of activity distinctly 
human, and placed the foundation of a philosophy 
that had few if any of the characteristics of re- 
ligion. This may account for the acceptance of 
his teachings in his own land ; and here a com- 
parison may be drawn between Confucius, Bud- 
dha, and Christ, the teachings of both Buddha 
and Christ having failed to gain a foothold 
among the people to whom they first preached 
their doctrines, while it is a fact that the accept- 
ance of the teachings of Confucius is now uni- 
versal throughout the Chinese race, with the 
exception, perhaps, of a limited number of inhab- 
itants of the north-western part of the empire, 
where Mohammedanism has to some extent gained 
followers. 

While there are adherents of Buddha, and 
others of Lao-Tse, neither of their teachings con- 
flict with each other, the philosophy of Taoism 
being only somewhat more severe than that of 
Confucius. The strange circumstance must be 
recorded that all three of these so-called religions 
or philosophical systems of religion are practised 
by many Chinese at one and the same time. 



EGYPT 

15. The Country.— Although the southern bound- 
ary line of Egypt barely reaches to the tropics, 
the climate is semi-tropical in character. The 
cause may be the influence of the deserts that 
are in immediate proximity to the valley of 
the Nile. In northern Egypt, near the Medi- 
terranean, rains are plentiful, but in southern 
Egypt showers are of a rare occurrence. The 
principal characteristics of the Egyptian land- 
scape is the tranquil monotony of formation, 
consisting of plains unbroken by elevations, 
wastes of waters, or hills that have flat tops and 
are bare of all vegetation. The sky is cloudless 
most of the time; there are no mists, fogs, rain- 
storms, or rainbows, and there is no picturesque 
scenery. As a relief of the monotony, nature 
itself offers an abundance of bright hues at 
dawn, that stretch in a maze of rosy light across 
the sky, but this enchanting influence that 
changes the entire aspect of the landscape is not 
lasting and disappears with the rising of the sun. 
In the evening a similar transformation takes 
place, the colours being even brighter than in 
the morning. In Upper Egypt the air is dry to 

16 




P£ 



<0^|W 



EGYPT 17 

such an extent that we must to this climatic 
feature ascribe the splendid preservation of many 
ancient paintings and sculptures, which to-day, 
after thousands of years, are as full of colour as 
when they were made. 

16. Climate. — From the earliest times Egypt 
has been called "the Gift of the Nile," and this 
is a very fitting description, because of the 
source from which Egypt derived its existence 
and greatness. The Nile, flowing from the 
highlands of Abyssinia and the great lakes of 
equatorial Africa, transforms the great desert 
waste that in reality constitutes Egypt, into a 
strip of fertile land. In consequence of the 
enormous rainfalls in the Abyssinian mountains 
the Nile every year inundates the adjacent 
territory, and to the muddy deposit, left by the 
great river when it again assumes its normal 
proportions, must be credited the fertility of the 
country, which made it possible for the inhabit- 
ants to simply sow the seed on the surface of the 
soil and to await the action of nature itself, and 
even this indolent mode of agricultural pursuit 
resulted in crops more than plentiful for the 
needs of the nation. Egypt, for this reason, 
was regarded in ancient times as the granary of 
the East, and to it, in cases of famine, other 
countries looked for help and succour. 

West of the Nile, the valley through which the 
river flows is protected by a range of hills, which 
follows nearly the jentire course at a distance of 



1 8 ANCIENT HISTORY 

but a few miles and thus forms a barrier against 
the hot desert winds. On the eastern bank of 
the river there is another range of hills, but in 
much closer proximity to the river-bed, so that 
on this side of the river the valley averages not 
more than about three or four miles, while on the 
other side the breadth is ten miles or even more. 
At a distance of about eighty miles from the 
Mediterranean the Nile divides into two arms, 
forming the delta of the Nile. 

17. Chronology. — Egyptian history 
begins with the first dynasty of Man- 
etho ....... B.C. 3000 

The fourth dynasty, or the period 
of the pyramid-builders . . . 2700 

After the sixth dynasty there is a 
period which is not recorded in his- 
tory. The next data are of the twelfth 
dynasty, which marks the close of 
the so-called Old Empire. After the 
period of this dynasty occurred the 
invasion of the Hyksos. 

The conquest of Lower Egypt by 
the Hyksos, and establishment by 
them of the Empire of the Shepherd 
Kings ...... 2100 

The settlement of the Jews in 
Egypt ...... 1900 

By some historians the year 1900 B.C. 
is taken as the date of Abraham's visit 
to Egypt, and the time of the settle- 



EGYPT 19 

merit of the Jews in Egypt is placed 
by them in the year 1700 b.c. 

Expulsion of the Hyksos by the 
Theban kings ..... b.c. 1600 

This marks the close of the Second, 
or Middle, Empire. The revolution 
which resulted in the expulsion of the 
Hyksos was led by Amosis, and to him 
belongs the credit of having founded 
the eighteenth dynasty. 

The eighteenth dynasty, the New 
Empire ...... 1500 

The nineteenth dynasty reigned 
from 1500 to about 1200 b.c. and ri- 
valled the eighteenth in greatness. The 
period from 1500 to 1200 is the most 
splendid in Egyptian history. 

The exodus of the Jews occurred 
in ...... !30o 

After the year 1200 b.c. follows a 
rapid decline in power, and there are 
very few available historical data 
about it. 

The Persians, under Cambyses, con- 
quered Egypt ..... 500 

After the battle of Marathon the 
Egyptians revolted against their con- 
querors. Xerxes, however, invaded 
Egypt and crushed the first revolt. A 
second uprising was quelled by Ar- 
taxerxes, but the third, under the 



20 ANCIENT HIS TOR Y 

leadership of Mendes, also called 
Nepheritis, was successful in estab- 
lishing the independence of Egypt. 

Egypt passed into the possession of 
the Greeks ...... b.c. 330 

After the partition of Alexander's 
Empire the Greek-Egyptian Empire 
was created under the rule of the 
Ptolemies. 

The Romans annexed Egypt after 
the death of Cleopatra ... 30 

18. Egyptian Arts. — As is the case with most 
people, the Egyptians in their art express the 
relation to their religion. From generation to 
generation the images of gods, symbols and 
emblems, were the models for copy and improve- 
ment, and architecture itself must have received 
the greatest inspirations from the desire to make 
the temple of their gods better in every respect 
than the habitations of man. That the Egyptians 
had a wonderful instinct in building their temples 
cannot detract from the grandeur of conception 
and the sublimity of construction of the vast 
edifices, which even now, ages after their com- 
pletion, show the proof of their elevated civil- 
isation. The colossal dimensions of the sphinxes, 
the obelisks, temples, and palaces are indeed 
awe-inspiring, while the pyramids are proof of 
the character of the nation because of the diffi- 
culties that must have been encountered by the 
builders, who, nevertheless, even with the lack 



EGYPT 21 

of mechanical contrivances for the execution of 
their task, were never intimidated by the in- 
finite obstacles which continuously must have 
obstructed their path. That one stone weighing 
something like eighteen hundred tons was dragged 
for hundreds of miles from the quarry to the 
structure, that it took two thousand men three 
years to accomplish the task, is one of the testi- 
monials to their persevering activity, whether 
voluntary or enforced need not be discussed. 

The sculpture of the Egyptians was in propor- 
tion to their architecture. It was colossal, but 
not beautiful. The most remarkable character- 
istic is that, although the earlier monuments 
showed a great amount of skill, this skill was 
never increased but remained always the same, 
never better. Religion must be held accountable 
for this, as the artists were not permitted to 
change the outlines of the earlier figures and 
symbols, and thus their inventive genius, which 
they no doubt possessed, was never given an 
impetus for continued development. 

The same reason may be assigned for the 
failure of the Egyptians to reach an even toler- 
able degree of excellence in their paintings. They 
are utterly devoid of perspective, and even the 
drawing is very inaccurate. 

19. Language and Literature. — From the an- 
cient Egyptian, the language passed through 
various stages. Of the first we have the proof in 
the so-called Rosetta Stone, which was unearthed 



22 AN CI EN T HIS TOR Y 

by some soldiers of Napoleon while they were 
making excavations for a fortress. The inscrip- 
tions on this stone are written in three different 
characters. The first of these are the hiero- 
glyphics. The hieroglyphics were for a long 
time supposed to be merely pictorial representa- 
tions of the objects they meant to describe, but 
later researches have led to the discover}' - that 
they are phonetic writing in which the words are 
spelled just the same as in the Aryan languages. 
However, the system of writing is very complex, 
and it was not until 1822 that Champollion 
finished the deciphering of the inscription of the 
Rosetta Stone. The second characters, the de- 
motic, represent the third stage of the Egyptian 
language, and is the language of the people that 
came into general use during the time of Psametik 
(600 B.C.) and remained in use until about the 
second century of our own era. The third char- 
acters on the Rosetta Stone are Greek. 

To enumerate the four systems : the first is the 
hieroglyphic, mentioned above; the second, the 
hieratic, which was introduced by the priests as 
an abbreviation of the pictorial characters and 
which really consisted of the same characters 
turned into cursive signs. In this style of writing 
the greatest part of Egyptian literature was 
composed, and it is by the translation of the 
hieratic characters back into the hieroglyphic 
that modern science has been able to decipher the 
contents of the ancient writings, preserved to 



EGYPT 23 

our own times on the few rolls of papyrus that 
have been discovered. The third system is the 
demotic, or common language; and the fourth, 
the Coptic, which is the last phase of the language, 
bears to the ancient Egyptian about the same 
relation as the English does to the Anglo-Saxon. 

When writing, the Egyptians used a sharp 
reed and two wells on a sort of palette, with red 
and black ink. With the black they wrote the 
ordinary text and with the red ink initial letters 
and other parts to be emphasised. The writing 
was done on the leaves of the papyrus, which was 
joined together in strips trimmed to the width of 
ten inches, and sometimes a paper as long as 150 
feet was used, the writing being done in a vertical 
line from one end to the other. 

20. Architecture. — Most of the buildings of old 
Egypt were constructed of stone. The valley 
of the Nile being rich in quarries containing the 
famous syenite, porphyry, limestone, and sand- 
stone, the buildings of ancient Egypt were of 
materials that proved themselves nearly in-' 
destructible. There is a mystery, which has re- 
mained unexplained to the present day, about 
the perfect ease with which the Egyptians were 
able to perform their carvings and the working 
of stone in general. While the proof remains 
that they were consummate artists in this 
line, the means by which they performed their 
work has never been determined. It is not 
even known that the ancient Egyptians were 



24 ANCIENT HISTORY 

acquainted with the use of steel. Bronze chisels 
have been discovered among the ruins of Egypt, 
but that furnished no solution to the problem, as 
it is an impossible task to maintain that they 
worked their stones with these tools, because 
to-day, of those same tools, none will bear a 
stroke against the granite from which the edi- 
fices were constructed. That they were used 
seems without doubt, the sharp edges and the 
battered tops will prove that, but further than 
that it is useless to offer suggestions. The 
pyramids, designed as the sepulchres of the kings, 
are the oldest monuments preserved from the 
ancient times. The three pyramids of El Geezeh 
are the largest, but there are a great many more 
in the vicinity of Memphis. Of the three pyra- 
mids mentioned, one is about 450 feet high, the 
second not much less, the third about 250 feet. 
The Palace of Karnak is another remarkable 
structure, and its ruins, with those of the ad- 
jacent Hall of Columns, even now form to the 
traveller a sight so colossal that it seems impossi- 
ble that such work could have been done by 
the hand of man. Other edifices to be men- 
tioned are the Temple of Luxor, the Temple of 
Ipsambul, hewn of rock, the two Colossi at 
Thebes, the Sphinx at the base of the great 
pyramid at El Geezeh, and finally the Obelisks, 
many of which have been removed. 

21. Religion. — As to the original religious sys- 
tem of Egypt there are various opinions. Some 



EGYPT 25 

investigators hold that from the ancient times 
dates their belief in one God; others, from various 
inscriptions, have deducted that such is not the 
case. However, even if at the beginning the 
idea of one god prevailed, there is ample proof 
that very soon polytheistic doctrines were adopted, 
but their influence was less degenerating than 
polytheistic ideas have been to other peoples, as 
the fundamental theory of the religious belief of 
the Egyptians was the worship of moving powers 
rather than of material forms. The old system 
of religion was very complex and a great number 
of gods could be cited. Of this great number 
the worship of Osiris and Isis was the most popu- 
lar. One of the characteristics of Egyptian re- 
ligion was the worship of animals. Thus dogs, 
cats, bulls, the ibis, hawks, were adored as deities 
throughout Egypt, and in some parts even other 
animals were revered as gods. Especially sacred 
was held the bull Apis at Memphis, and the calf 
Mnevis at Heliopolis. These sacred animals 
were kept in the temples and well cared for. 
When they died they were embalmed and an 
immediate search instituted for their successors. 
As one of the main causes of the mental debase- 
ment of the people, which finally brought dis- 
aster and oblivion to the great nation, must be 
held this worship of animals, and its extension 
again can be ascribed to the overwhelming in- 
fluence of the priests. 

22. Classes. — The people of Egypt were divided 



26 ANCIENT HISTORY 

into three great classes: the priests, the soldiers, 
and the common people. Into the class of 
priests were also reckoned the prophets, scientists, 
artists, sculptors, and embalmers. The priests 
were the richest, most powerful, and most in- 
fluential. They had a great sway over the 
common people, and as they held the life of every 
Egyptian in their hands in the right to decide 
the minutiae of the religious rituals, which were 
unflinchingly obeyed by the people, not even ex- 
cepting the king, their power can well be imagined. 
To the priests belonged one-third of the land, 
and they were not permitted to perform any 
labours outside of their sacred duties. For this 
reason they were granted ample support, and 
contributions of wine, corn, and animals brought 
for sacrifice furnished them abundant means of 
maintenance. Their discipline was very exact- 
ing. They were expected to bathe twice every 
day and twice every night. On every third day 
they were to shave their entire bodies, and the 
clothing they wore was of linen, as wool was 
considered unclean. 

23. The Army. — Of the army of Egypt it can 
be said that its successes were due to the disci- 
pline rather than to any excellency of leadership 
or personal heroism. The soldiers formed the 
second class in rank, and to each was given a 
certain portion of land that he might therefrom 
derive the means of subsistence, but he was not 
allowed to follow any art or trade. When a war 



EGYPT 27 

broke out, the armament was furnished to the 
soldiery from the governmental armories; trum- 
pets were used in giving the command to ad- 
vance, to charge, or to retreat. Battering-rams 
and protecting sheds were used by them as by 
the Romans. The cavalry service was unknown 
in old Egypt, but after the expulsion of the 
Hyksos war chariots were introduced. 

24. Medicine and Embalming. — Egyptian doc- 
tors had a great reputation among the ancient 
nations. Every doctor was a specialist in his 
line, and he was not permitted to depart from 
the set mode of treatment, so that if he did so 
and the patient died, he was adjudged guilty of 
murder. 

The modern signs for grains and drams are of 
Egyptian origin. 

Embalming was as much a profession in 
Egypt as the practice of medicine, and the 
bodies of all, except perhaps those of the very 
poorest, were in some way or other protected 
against decay. In embalming a body the em- 
balmers at first removed the brain through the 
nostrils, then the entire viscera were removed 
and deposited in urns after having been thor- 
oughly cleaned. Then the body was filled with 
myrrh, cassia, and other fragrant substances and 
it was carefully sewn up. After having been 
submerged in carbonate of soda and salt for about 
two months, the body was washed and wrapped 
in linen bandages, which on the inner surface 



28 ANCIENT HISTORY 

were covered with a kind of glue. Finally the 
mummy was put into a wooden receptacle in 
the form of a man and set upright against the 
wall. The cost of embalming was very different 
according to the mode pursued, and a range as 
wide as between $1000, or rather its equivalent, 
and practically nothing, may be indicated, as the 
bodies of the poor were only salted and dried and 
then laid in trenches in the desert. 

25. Origin of the Egyptians. — The origin of 
the Egyptians is hidden in darkness as is the 
origin of most of the races. We come to know 
of the existence of a race, then of another, but 
where they came from we are unable to de- 
termine, and it must be concluded that nations 
as well as individuals have no knowledge of their 
own infancy. It is asserted, however, that at a 
period so remote as to be entirely removed from 
the earliest records extant, a small population 
of the aborigines was displaced by another race 
in Egypt, and it is conceded that these invaders 
were not Semites nor Negroes. The motive for 
their coming into the Nile valley is the same as 
the reason for the migration of other peoples: 
over-population in the original homes of the 
tribe, the adventurous spirit and desire for con- 
quest, and finally the strange cosmic influence 
which seems to draw all animal and human life 
toward the West. They came into the country 
for the same reasons that the Celts, Hellenes, and 
Teutons entered Europe, and it is reasonable to 



EGYPT 29 

assume that the influence of the original in- 
habitants of the country upon the invaders was 
not greater than was the influence of the first 
inhabitants of the lands north of the Mediter- 
ranean upon the later immigrants. 

26. Organisation and Government. — The fertility 
of Egypt's soil, the tilling of which seemed 
to destine the people to an agricultural nation, 
soon resulted in the acquisition by the people of 
comfortable means of living and naturally roused 
the predatory instinct of the surrounding tribes. 
This gave cause to the creation of a soldiery, and 
as with each successful defence of the country 
the soldiers gained in prestige, the formation of 
a preferred caste was the immediate result. On 
the other hand, as the reason of the establish- 
ment of the caste of priesthood may be assigned 
the inability of the common people to explain 
many of the phenomena occurring within their 
sight, the most remarkable of which the regular 
rise and fall of the Nile must have seemed to 
them. While they could but look upon the 
wonder in astonishment, the priests assumed the 
task of accounting for the order and cause of 
things, thus establishing a system of natural and 
religious philosophy, which necessarily resulted 
in their being held in equal awe and reverence as 
the mysterious phenomena. 

As to the formation of their government, it 
may be said that the conditions of the country 
were pre-eminently favourable to a monarchical 



30 ANCIENT HISTORY 

form, as the people, equal relations as to soil, in- 
dustry, interests, disposition, and the physical 
surroundings naturally suggested a strong cen- 
tralised government, military in its methods. 



THE EARLIEST FORMS OF GOVERNMENT 

27. Sources of Study. — It is deemed advisable 
to interpolate a short consideration of the earliest 
sources of government, before continuing the his- 
torical notes, in order that the statements refer- 
ring to the social organisation of the different 
nations that will come under observation may be 
fully comprehended. It is of great importance 
as stating some of the basal concepts of political 
science as related to history. 

Modern research into the subject of social or- 
ganisation in its primitive stage, and of the de- 
velopment of government, the visible form of 
social organisation, must be conducted on lines 
radically different from the attempts of earlier 
times to reconcile the various causes and effects 
of the progress of the human race by conjecture 
pure and simple, in accordance with the concep- 
tions of abstract speculation. 

The comparative method of study, which 
Freeman calls "the greatest intellectual achieve- 
ment of our time," as applied to the inquiry into 
the origin, nature, and development of the man- 
ners and customs, the social institutions, and the 
religious ceremonies of the different nations of 

31 



32 ANCIENT HISTORY 

the earth, has removed the results obtained from 
all association with random guesswork, and 
while its proofs are necessarily internal, the sub- 
ject practically excluding the possibility of in- 
troducing external evidence, while some of its 
arguments depend upon facts beyond its own 
range, in a larger measure even than the allied 
science of comparative philology, thus producing 
a result somewhat less satisfactory, it has never- 
theless caused the light of knowledge to be spread 
over many subjects that had hitherto been veiled 
in darkness. 

The traces of primitive institutions preserved 
to this day in law, tradition, or custom, historical 
accounts of developments of single communities 
or nations, theories, rumours, or facts related in 
narratives of travellers about races still extant, 
or records of historians describing ancient laws 
and customs, the ancient legends and myths, 
supplemented by archaeological remains, all these 
furnish a vast and interesting material for this 
study, from which by patient comparison and 
analysis, may be reconstrued periods removed 
from our direct observation. 

28. Theory of Evolution. — The subject is one of 
great difficulty, however, and leads incidentally 
to many questions for solving which the data 
at our command are still inadequate, as even 
the fundamental question as to the priority of 
savagery to any form of civilisation is in fact a 
quite open one, because natural science has not 



EARLIEST FORMS OF GOVERNMENT 33 

yet placed the theory of evolution upon such 
firm basis so as to make it absolutely unassail- 
able, and positive historical proofs are as yet 
wanting to confirm either view. 

While history shows facts of both movements 
the transition from a savage into a civilised con- 
dition would seem to have been the more fre- 
quent of the two, 

but in fact, any progress is extremely rare. As a 
rule a stationary state is by far the most frequent 
condition of man, as far as history describes that 
condition ; the progressive state is only a rare and 
an occasional exception. Very few races have been 
capable of even the meanest sort of history, and 
when History begins to record, she finds most of the 
races incapable of history, arrested, unprogressive, 
and pretty much where they are now. — (Bagehot.) 

China and India furnish the best examples of 
these stagnated nationalities, and no doubt the 
unfavourable situation of both countries for free 
intercourse with other nations, their isolation, and 
the geographical character of the country, con- 
stituted potent factors which led them to subside 
into the well-worn ruts of antiquated customs, 
after the great stream of migration had turned 
towards Europe, leaving them behind to them- 
selves, with the ancient customs hardening 
around their social bodies, causing their social 
organisation to become rigid and stationary. 

Thus it was with the majority of the human 



34 ANCIENT HISTORY 

race, while in the case of the minority custom was 
changed by conflict, altered by the multiple in- 
fluences of conditions and circumstances met in 
the movement toward the West, and the in- 
tellectual horizon of these races was broadened 
by these experiences and the contact with other 
peoples, whether in peace or in war. 

The question must arise now, why the natural 
causes have not produced the obvious effects, 
and why the fortunes of mankind have been so 
different from what the above would lead us to 
expect. 

History shows a mental advance, but only in 
nations which have participated in the actions 
of history, and only so long as this part has been 
continued. It may be said that "many of the 
races now standing far behind in a mental point 
of view will in the future have made a great 
advance." And in the case of other races, "de- 
struction in the struggle for existence as a con- 
sequence of their retardation (itself regulated 
by the universal conditions of development), is 
the natural course of things." — (Schmidt.) 

Many instances of progress can be followed 
from step to step, history showing to us the 
Greeks of the half-savage state pictured by the 
Iliad, gradually ascending into the period of 
their high development as described by Xeno- 
phon and Thucydides; the Romans, exchanging 
' the life of the robber band of the eighth century 
before our era for the splendour of the Augustan 



EARLIEST FORMS OF GOVERNMENT 3$ 

age; or, again, the Arab savages rising until they 
display the glories of Bagdad or Granada, while 
in our own times we shall be willing witnesses 
of this process of evolution from barbarism to 
civilisation in Russia, where the abolishment of 
serfdom has instituted a growth of liberal in- 
stitutions. 

Undoubtedly there have been cases of retro- 
gression, but a very strong argument in favour 
of the theory that the existing are not the de- 
scendants of civilised ancestors, and that the 
primitive condition was one of utter barbarism, 
seems to be the fact that "races which fall back 
in civilisation diminish in numbers," while "the 
whole history of men shows how the stronger and 
progressive increase in numbers and drive out 
the weaker and lower races."— (Lubbock.) Thus 
the oft-cited instance of the Weddas, whose 
language comparative philologists pronounce the 
descendant of the highly developed Aryan form 
of speech — the Sanskrit — and who, therefore, are 
believed to be degenerate descendants of the 
Aryan conquerors of India, may be taken for a 
case of such retrogression, admitted by the pro- 
pounders of the theory of evolution themselves. 

Government, one of the most striking of those 
institutions of the human race having reason, 
convenience, and interest as their original mo- 
tive, presents in its various divergences from a 
simple radical into many varieties an evolution- 
ary diagram no less startling than that of the 



36 ANCIENT HISTOR Y 

progressive formation, by numerous intermediate 
stages, and through influence of secondary laws 
of. our planet, from' nebulous germinal matter 
into a fixed and organic condition. The rise of 
man himself from the germ of life through the 
various processes of growth, changes, and adapta- 
tions, no less true than the spread and develop- 
ment of human speech, characterised by the 
same phenomena, the survival of some, the 
stronger and better, the extinction of other 
varieties, the fixing of the better elements, and 
their development into special forms, — all these 
seem to be but additional arguments in favour 
of the theory of evolution. 

There undoubtedly was a time when there was 
no government at all, as certainly as the social 
organisation of the present day forms one of 
the most conspicuous facts in history. Between 
these two points there must necessarily lie a be- 
ginning of government, if the application of the 
theory of evolution is deemed permissible. It 
had some beginning, an undiscoverable origin; 
there must have been a germ, an embryo, and a 
birth, with the subsequent stages of infancy and 
growth to maturity. 

Many theories have been advanced as to the 
origin of government, and among them most im- 
portant is the so-called Contract-Theory, with 
which such notable names as Hooker, Hobbes, 
Locke, and Rousseau are connected. 

29. Various Conceptions of Government. — The 



EARLIEST FORMS OF GOVERNMENT 37 

theory that government originated in contract 
assumes that there is another law besides and 
above the law of men, namely, the Law of Nature. 
Strict adherence to the dictates of this law, which 
is binding upon the consciences of men, would 
have enabled them to live together without 
friction, as the Law of Nature, according to 
Hobbes, teaches the doctrine of "doing to others 
as we would have others do to us"; but as the 
passions of men prevented their complying fully 
with the provisions of this law, and caused the 
antagonistic part of their character to bring about 
belligerent disputes, mutual extermination would 
have been the unavoidable result of these quar- 
rels, according to the advocates of the Contract- 
Theory, unless some step was taken which would 
restrain the selfish passions of men. This step is 
said to have been the Social Compact, by which 
men agreed to enter into one community, where 
their respective rights would be judged by a 
common authority, to which they submitted. 
This theory, however, has no historical founda- 
tion. The contract was the result of a complete 
change in the primitive social order, in which the 
blood of each man designated the career of his 
life, from which there was no possible deviation, 
so that a man born a slave necessarily remained 
a slave all his life, because it was impossible for 
him, no matter how great his efficiency or fitness 
for some higher social position, to rise above his 
parentage. The existence of a social organisation 



38 A NCI EN T HIS TOR Y 

based upon contract would hardly have been 
possible without the feeling of respect for the 
law, which is a modern element of action. In 
the primitive social organisation the reason for 
the submission to a common authority was not 
a contract, but mutual subordination, and the 
bonds by which men were held together were not 
those of reasoned regard for law, but instinctive 
respect for authority. Ancient tradition pre- 
sents another theory for the origin of laws and 
customs by the assignment of one original Law- 
giver, either human or divine, who gave to the 
nations the principal form of their government; 
but in this theory, which contemplates systems 
as made, not as developed from a crude original, 
the part played by conscious choice is greatly ex- 
aggerated, as it ascribes to one individual the 
creative power in framing complete political 
systems. 

There is some truth, however, in both theories. 
Government was affected to some extent, after 
having sprung into existence, by deliberate choice, 
although this human effort was not exercised to 
create, but only to modify government in accord- 
ance with the requirements of divers conditions, 
and it did not originate in contract, nor was it 
created by any one individual, and was simul- 
taneous with the origin of the family. 

The modern definition of the State ("A State 
is a people organised for law within a definite 
territory") limits sovereignty to some particu- 



EARLIEST FORMS OF GOVERNMENT 39 

lar lands, but the primitive States were nomadic 
organisations, who changed their habitations fre- 
quently, because the members of the organisa- 
tion were either hunters, fishermen, or herdsmen, 
and were thus led by the very nature of their 
occupations to seek new hunting-grounds, new 
streams, new pastures, as the old ones ceased 
to furnish them with easy means of livelihood. 
Sufficient evidence of this is furnished by the 
histories of the Franks and other Germanic na- 
tions. In their organisations no reference was 
made to the land they occupied, and the heads 
of the organisation were the sovereigns of the 
people, and not of the land. With the cessation 
of the migrations, when these social organisations 
became closer associated with the land in which 
they obtained their sustenance, and the people 
added agriculture to their other occupations, 
political organisation began to be identified 
with the land occupied. However, this was at- 
tained by a slow process of development and was 
entirely separate from the idea of government. 
In the primitive organisations the people were 
bound together by close ties of real or assumed 
relationship, and the great difference between 
the primitive and the modern State lies in the 
members of the former having lived together be- 
cause of their mutual relations, while the mem- 
bers of the latter may be said to be related, 
socially, because they live together. 

30. The Family. — The analysis of the process 



40 ANCIENT HISTORY 

by which governmental institutions have been 
evolved, reveals the fundamental fact that 
government originated in blood-relationship, and 
that the family was the original of primitive 
society, resting upon status, and not upon con- 
tract. Thus the method by which the sexes are 
joined for the increase and preservation of the 
race becomes an important subject of investiga- 
tion, with the view to bringing into clearer light 
that original unit of social organisation — the 
family — which has furnished the first adequate 
form of government. 

At the present time under the name of the 
family is understood the group consisting of a 
man, its recognised head, his wife, and their 
children, these persons forming the innermost 
circle of relationship — relationship being reckoned 
by degrees and counted through both father and 
mother. 

Until lately the opinion was universally ac- 
cepted that this group existed in practically the 
same form, with the father at its head, from the 
beginning of society. It was believed that "no 
other form could be more according to nature, 
more primitive, and that this family was the 
germ from which all societies had been developed. " 

Given such a family, as the children and their 
descendants married, a number of smaller groups 
would be formed round it, separate from one another, 
but all subject to their patriarch, in whose family 
they would be as long as he lived. They would prob- 



EA RUE ST EORMS OF GO VERNMEN T 4 1 

ably separate from each other at his death and ex- 
pand and multiply by themselves; but in the course 
of time the family groups thus arising would find it 
convenient to go on living together, and thereafter 
they would become a set of separate tribes, many of 
which would be neighbours, and which might form 
in time the population of a district. Then, the re- 
membrance of their origin remaining, it would be 
easy for them to act together for common purpose; 
and this point arrived at, the descendants of one man 
would be well advanced in the progress toward the 
modern idea of a people or nation. — (McLennan.) 

Sir Henry Maine, in his Ancient Law, treats the 
patriarchal family as primitive, and his views 
are by many accepted as final. However, the 
investigations of the Swiss professor, Bachofen, 
the author of Das Mutterrecht, and of the Scotch 
lawyer, John McLennan, at about the same time 
when Sir Maine wrote his Ancient Law, brought 
forth the theory, supported by many facts, that 
in ancient times there had existed a system of 
kinship through mothers only, and that this 
system had long preceded that of an established 
tie. of blood between father and child. 

Maine offers the Roman family as the true 
type of the primitive family, describing the same 
as consisting of the paterfamilias, who possessed 
virtually unlimited authority over his house- 
hold, his wife, his children, the persons adopted 
into the family, and the slaves. He states the 
primitive relationship as being simply the tie of 



42 A NCIEN T I1IS TOR V 

common subjection to the paterfamilias, and also 
that women on the day of marriage become the 
subjects of a new paterfamilias, there being no 
marriage between persons of the same family, so 
that the descendants of a woman would be sepa- 
rated from the family of her birth, thus causing 
relationship in the course of time to be traced 
exclusively through males. The relationship was 
called at Rome agnation, and Maine deduces 
that clans, tribes, and all later forms of social 
organisation would be based on this agnatic re- 
lationship. The form of family just described 
seems, however, one too complex to have be- 
longed to primitive society, and Maine's theory 
is liable to some special objections. 

The arguments pro and contra upon this 
question are many, but the discoveries of the 
latter half of the nineteenth century have opened 
to modern research such vast and stupendous 
views of the past, that the age upon which 
Maine's arguments are based cannot be regarded 
as being the age of primitive society, and its 
institutions, comparatively speaking, may be 
held to be modern rather than ancient, if the 
ages preceding that period are taken into con- 
sideration. 

Although the evidence accumulated lately 
points rather more to the fact that the patri- 
archal family was a derived form, nevertheless 
the highest races trace back their social organisa- 
tion through tradition to a patriarchal family, 



EARLIEST FORMS OF GO VERNMEN T 43 

this being especially marked in the case of the 
Greeks and Romans, and most of these peoples 
who have gained importance in history believe 
in the common descent through males, from a 
male ancestor, either human or divine. 

At the beginning of the lower status of bar- 
barism, nowhere extant at the present day, men 
are supposed to have dwelt in a horde, very much 
after the fashion of gregarious animals, and if 
the sexual relations of the savages of our own 
times, among whom "after the battle the wives 
of the conquered, of their own free will, go over 
to the victors" (Spencer), represent an improve- 
ment over a previous state of things, that previous 
state cannot have been anything much different 
from utter promiscuity of sexual relations and 
consequent confusion in offspring. 

There is every reason to suppose prehistoric man 
to be deficient in sexual morality, as we regard that 
morality. As to the detail of "primitive marriage" 
or "no marriage," for that is pretty much what it 
comes to, there is of course much room for discus- 
sion. — (Bagehot.) 

Out of this state, by gradual and very slow 
development, through various stages, the rude 
form of a family group was evolved in which 
kinship was reckoned through mothers only, and 
the chiefship never descended from father to son. 

31. Kinship. — The intermediate stages in the 
development of the family from the miscellaneous 



44 A NCI EN T HIS TOR Y 

mating of the sexes in remote prehistoric times 
to the present form of monogamy, which has 
been prevalent among the enlightened races, seem 
to have been first polyandry, and afterwards 
polygamy. 

This theory would imply that in obedience to 
the social instinct, of which marriage was a result, 
an organic development by the line of the female 
was first attempted. The woman was made the 
central fact, the ethnic descent for the tribe being 
drawn through her. The men of the tribe were 
arranged around the woman, and any of the 
men might be the father of her offspring, to whom 
the woman thus stood in the relation of mother, 
and the entire tribe for the father. 

Then came the change of kinship, as it occurred 
among Aryan and Semitic peoples, which marked 
one of the most important revolutions in the his- 
tory of mankind, the character of society being 
greatly altered by the substitution of kinship in 
the paternal for that in the maternal line. 

The time when this change took place cannot 
be stated with any degree of certainty, although 
there is much evidence pointing to the period 
after the domestication of animals had resulted 
in' the acquisition of property by individuals. 
There had been but little property in primitive 
society, excepting, perhaps, weapons, clothing', 
and trinkets. Real estate was entirely unknown, 
as the land was simply occupied by the tribe. 

From the beginning the development of poly- 



EARLIEST FORMS OF GO VERNMEN T 45 

gamy and monogamy, both dissoluble forms of 
marriage, may be construed, taking the posses- 
sion of property for the instrument it represented 
in the establishing of distinction in wealth and 
rank, enabling the man of property to attach to 
himself subordinates, to defend himself against 
intruders and robbers, and to maintain a separate 
household, thus initiating the exclusive possession 
of wife or wives. The richer among the people 
were probably those among whom polygamy 
flourished to a greater extent, and the fact that 
such large families, by different mothers, could 
be held together only if kinship were reckoned 
through the father, may have been a factor in 
effecting the important change of transferring 
kinship from the maternal to the paternal line. 

We are, therefore, led to suppose that in this 
way was originated the patriarchal form of the 
family, which even in its crudest form constituted 
a vast improvement over the family described 
before. 

The man had now become the central figure in 
the organisation, and thus the evolution pro- 
ceeded to the establishment of monogamy, or 
single marriage. The affinity to, or rather the 
derivation of, the latter organisation, from poly- 
gamy is indicated by a certain predominance 
which the male still maintains in the organisation 
of the family and the laws of descent. He it is 
who in general owns and controls the property, 
from whom the offspring derives its name, and 



4 6 ANCIENT HISTORY 

who still constitutes the single line of descent 
from ancestor to posterity. The tendency in 
the present age to perpetuate the name of the 
woman in the offspring, and to establish in her 
line equal rights of inheritance and descent, are 
only evidences that the law of variation and adap- 
tation is still operative in the determining of the 
methods by which the family is to be constituted. 

32. Development and Organisation. — In order 
to trace the development of this patriarchal 
family, we must consider first the family group 
of the original founder, with his wives and 
children, both males and females. The male de- 
scendants remain members of the family, the 
females continue as members only until the time 
of their marriage, when they become members of 
the families of their husbands, while the wives 
of the sons of the patriarch, taken from some 
other family, become members of the family of 
their husbands. This order is continued through 
generations; the sons remain and their wives 
become by their marriage members of the family, 
while the daughters cease to be such on the day 
of their marriage. 

In observing the organisation of the patri- 
archal family we see at its head the eldest male 
descendant of the founder, the patriarch, and its 
membership is constituted by all the male de- 
scendants on the paternal side from the original 
ancestor, their wives, and the females descended 
on the paternal side still unmarried. 



EARLIEST FORMS OF GOVERNMENT 47 

The eldest son becomes patriarch upon the death 
of the founder, and his son succeeds him, or, if 
there be no son, his brother assumes the headship 
of the family. 

The persons mentioned constituted the mem- 
bership of the patriarchal family, bound together 
by ties of actual blood-relationship, by birth or 
marriage. However, the patriarchal family was 
not constituted only by persons actually bound 
to each other by blood-relationship, there being 
also in its inner circle slaves and other persons 
adopted into the household, who, after having 
been admitted to the secrets of the family wor- 
ship, and made participants in the solemn rites 
in the presence of the Sacred Fire, became mem- 
bers of the family not only in name, but in fact 
as well, all distinguishing features being obliter- 
ated by the solemnising of their initiation by 
the religious observances which accompanied the 
adoption. 

The patriarchal family, constituted as above, 
existed entirely independent of all external au- 
thority, representing a complete and separate 
social body, in which the patriarch was the only 
source of authority'. 

The patriarch was regarded as possessing al- 
most unlimited powers over the persons con- 
stituting the membership of the group, and they 
were held responsible to him for all their actions. 

In the course of time this absolute power 
must of necessity have become modified, and 



48 ANCIENT HISTORY 

undoubtedly custom exercised the prevailing in- 
fluence in effecting the restraint laid upon 
patriarchal authority. 

There were no recognised conceptions of law- 
regulating the affairs of the organisation, but the 
rules for the conduct of the different members 
of the household, the assigning of the various 
family duties, the inflicting of punishment upon 
individual members of the family — all these ac- 
tions were dependent upon the coercive power of 
custom. Success in life and its affairs no doubt 
attended those families best which applied the 
regularity, certainty, and order of the rules of 
custom most consistently, and thus served to 
create 

what we may call a custom-making power, that is, 
an authority which can enforce a fixed rule of life, 
which, by means of that fixed rule, can in some de- 
gree create a calculable future, which can make it 
rational to postpone present violent but momentary 
pleasure for future continual pleasure, because it 
ensures what else is not sure, that if the sacrifice of 
what is in hand is made, enjoyment of the con- 
tingent expected recompense will be received. — ■ 
(B age hot.) 

33. Custom. — The regard for custom and pre- 
cedent was influenced also by the practice of 
ancestor-worship, one of the most persistent of 
the institutions among the early Aryans, and 
thus the rules of custom became, gradually, 



EA RUES T FORMS OF GO VERNMEN T 49 

equivalent to a law, "which effectively arranged 
the affairs of the family, and regulated its trans- 
actions as well as the part taken in the perform- 
ance of various duties by the different members. 
It prescribed all details of daily conduct in im- 
perious and inflexible rules, which left no room for 
individuality, and the required observance of the 
practices of the ancestors was rendered arbitrary 
by superstition. In the family the will of the 
father was supreme, while outside of the family 
the changeless dicta of religion constituted the 
highest authority: The tendency for this in- 
exorable law of custom was to check all political 
development, and this tendency towards stagna- 
tion has been fulfilled in the case of the majority 
of the human race, which has remained stationary 
at one or another stage of political development, 
while the minority in time relinquished the 
primitive practices entirely, and entered upon 
the road to progress. 

In the beginning custom was quite flexible, 
attaining its fixed character only in later periods. 
It doubtless occurred quite frequently that group 
separated from group during the nomadic life 
of early society, and custom not having as yet 
assumed the changeless character it acquired in 
its old age, it was influenced to a great extent 
by surroundings and circumstances, and thus a 
custom quite different from that of the parent 
group was introduced. This difference in cus- 
toms between peoples of originally one and the 



50 ANCIENT HISTORY 

same stock alienated them from each other in all 
respects, and became the cause for war, a com- 
petition of customs, in which naturally the better 
custom, the superior discipline denoted by this 
appellation, prevailed, as is shown conclusively 
by the fact that the progressive races of to-day 
inhabit and control the most advantageous dis- 
tricts of the world, while the peoples who have 
permitted the ancient customs to crystallise 
around them and thereby check their progress, 
so that their culture and social development re- 
main to-day at a stage which they had reached 
in their earliest history, occupy the less favoured 
parts of the world. These changes of custom 
were effected during the migration of the pro- 
gressive races to the West, in the movement 
towards their permanent abodes. 

We are now brought within sight of the first 
authoritative council, having power to give de- 
cisions in regard to questions of custom. Such 
was the Family Council, consisting of the elders 
of the family, and its authority probably ex- 
tended beyond the management of internal 
affairs to the supervision of transactions and 
negotiations with other families. 

The internal state of the family was influenced 
by various customs, of which the most important 
were the maintenance of the Sacred Fire, the wor- 
ship of the dead, the marriage ceremony, and the 
custom of adoption. 

The first of these customs is interesting mainly 



EARLIEST FORMS OF GOVERNMENT 5 I 

on account of its connection with other family 
customs, in which it played an important part. 
The Sacred Fire, which was kept constantly 
burning on the family hearth in the midst of the 
dwelling, was regarded as a sort of living deity, 
whose assistance and watchfulness were necessary 
to the welfare of the family, and it was the 
virtual centre of family life, the food being 
cooked by its aid, the sacrifice or the funeral pyre 
lighted from it, and no stranger being admitted 
into its presence. 

The custom of the worship of the Sacred Fire 
probably originated in the ancient usage to bury 
the dead in the houses, and "we may suppose, 
therefore, that the domestic fire was in the be- 
ginning only the symbol of the worship of the 
dead ; that under the stone of the hearth reposed 
an ancestor; that the fire was lighted there to 
honour him ' ' (Coulanges) ; but this is merely 
conjecture, there being no historical proofs to 
substantiate it. 

The worship of the dead was simply the wor- 
ship of ancestors. It was offered by the family 
only to deceased persons who had belonged to it 
by blood, and for the funeral meal, renewed at 
intervals, participation was reserved to the mem- 
bers of the family only, all strangers being jeal- 
ously excluded, as the belief was that the ancestor 
would accept no offerings except from his own 
family. 

As in all other family ceremonies, the patriarch 



52 ANCIENT HISTORY 

acted as officiating priest in the performance of 
the religious rites, and the care of the Sacred Fire 
was confided to the patriarch's wife. 

34. Marriage. — In considering the marriage 
ceremony it must be borne in mind that woman 
as well as man took part in the religious acts of 
the worship of ancestors and of the Sacred Fire. 
The daughter from her infancy invoked the Sacred 
Fire with her father; it was her god as well as 
his. When she was about to marry, the conse- 
quences of this resolve, in accordance with the 
changeless principles of the ancient religious be- 
lief, suggest the gravity of the step taken by her, 
for on the day of her marriage she ceased to be a 
member of the household in which she was born. 

She must give up the god of her infancy, and put 
herself under the protection of a god whom she 
knows not. Let her not hope to remain faithful to 
the one while honouring the other; for in this re- 
ligion it is an immutable principle that the same 
person cannot invoke two Sacred Fires or two series 
of ancestors. — (Coulanges.) 

This fact was probably originated by the iso- 
lated life led by the families, which made it im- 
possible for a person to belong at one and the 
same time to two different families. The change 
in family thus involved a change of religion as 
well, because the worship of her husband's god, the 
Sacred Fire of his family, included different rites, 
different mysterious ceremonies, and as no one 



EA RUE ST FORMS OF GO VERNMEN T 53 

was privileged to make sacrifices to the Sacred 
Fire except one born near it, it was well to mark 
the marriage, a change of family, by a fitting 
ceremony, which "would imply the initiation of 
the young wife into the new religion as well. 

The marriage ceremony, as a rule, consisted of 
three separate acts. The first was the religious 
service at the hearth of the father of the bride, 
the father, through whom she was attached to this 
hearth, again detaching her from this bond. The 
second part of the ceremony was the carrying of 
the bride to the house of her husband, and the 
third her introduction into the worship of her 
husband's family by a grave and earnest cere- 
mony in the presence of the sacred house-fire, 
which united man and wife by the powerful bond 
of the same religious belief. 

The ceremony was, of course, subject to many 
variations among the different Aryan peoples; 
one feature, however, may be traced in all of 
them, that is, the change of family by the bride. 

35. Adoption. — The custom of adoption may 
be designated as an extension of the principle 
which made it possible to admit the wife into the 
worship and family of her husband, and a likeness 
may also be observed in the ceremony attending 
the adoption, which was nearly a copy of the 
marriage ceremony. The original reason for 
adoption was the necessity of preventing the ex- 
tinction of the worship of ancestors, in cases 
where there was no son. "To adopt a son was, 



54 ANCIENT HISTORY 

then, to watch over the perpetuity of the domes- 
tic religion, the safety of the Sacred Fire, the 
continuation of the funeral offerings, and the re- 
pose of the manes of the ancestors." — (Coulanges.) 

The Hindu and Greek laws state this reason 
plainly, though in Rome there were adoptions 
in many cases where there was a son by nature. 
Little doubt can be entertained but that the fear of 
extinction of a family constituted the main reason 
for the introduction of the custom of adoption. 

The theoretical isolation of the patriarchal 
family group from the rest of the world is strongly 
illustrated again by the ceremony of adoption, in 
which, the same as in the marriage ceremony, 
there were a renunciation of the old worship and 
an introduction into the new family religion. 
However, the custom of adoption must be set 
down as a mark of decay in the original features 
of the patriarchal family. It was nothing more 
than an artificial grafting upon the original stock, 
and the result could not have been anything else 
but a decrease of the esteem in which the prin- 
ciple of pure blood-relationship was held by the 
ancient peoples. 

The development from the individual patri- 
archal family into a more extended social or- 
ganisation must now be traced in order to convey 
an idea of the process by which the simple form 
of governmental authority vested in the head of 
the household was transformed into the com- 
plicated political arrangements of civilised nations. 



EARLIEST FORMS OF GOVERNMENT 55 

36. Evolution of the State. — The first step in 
this development was reached by the steady 
growth of the patriarchal family, by natural in- 
crease, as well as by adoption, resulting in the 
forming of the clan. 

The numerous branches constituting this new 
form of social organisation were not held together 
by the actual father of the entire enlarged family, 
but the actual progenitor was now replaced by 
some selected elder, who exercised the authority 
of the head of the family, which still was bound 
together by the bonds of kinship. 

A clan was essentially a juristic organisation. Its 
members have common rights and duties, among 
which marital rights and duties were of the first im- 
portance. A man could not marry his clanswoman, 
therefore, no clan was self-perpetuating, and a tribe 
accordingly comprised two or more clans whose 
members intermarry. — (Giddings.) 

Families often split up, or sent little colonies 
from their midst. Of course, after the pursuit 
of agriculture had been taken up, such separation 
was by no means as complete as it had been dur- 
ing the nomadic state of the race. Close inter- 
course continued to be maintained with the 
parent stock, and thus, in the course of time, 
was evolved the tribe, the members of which 
were all united by a common origin, compacted 
by blood-relationship either real or assumed, 
that is, each individual member of the tribe was 



56 ANCIENT HISTORY 

either born a member or had been made a mem- 
ber by adoption into one of the families constitut- 
ing the tribe, or, perhaps, entire families had been 
adopted into the tribe, thus furnishing an in- 
stance of a still further extension of the principle 
of adoption. In this form of social organisa- 
tion each separate family and clan would con- 
tinue in its internal relations the peculiarities of 
patriarchal rule, but the heads of the different 
families would now be related to each other on 
quite a new principle. While they would not 
now be members of one and the same family, 
subject to the authority of one common patri- 
archal chief, they would still be united by the 
bonds of common interests, and the power of the 
patriarch within his own circle would gradually 
decrease, because of the weakening influence of 
the fact that the family had ceased to be the 
bond of union, although the units composing the 
new organisation were themselves groups con- 
structed on the patriarchal type. As long as the 
family had been the only body of which an in- 
dividual was a member, the loss of any share in 
the rights as well as the property of the family 
was the consequence of the termination of this re- 
lation by the individual, but after the family had 
become a part of the tribe such separation ceased 
to be as difficult to accomplish, as, even in case 
the household were subdivided, the component 
parts would continue united in the tribe. This 
undoubtedlv constituted an additional factor in 



EARLIEST FORMS OF GOVERNMENT $7 

the decay of the patriarchal authority, and as the 
importance of the relation of the individual to 
the family diminished, the relation to the tribe 
continued to grow in importance. 

The tribe now absorbed the regulation of many 
affairs originally within the exclusive power of 
the patriarch, completing the establishment of 
the first distinctly political organisation, which 
was fully sufficient during the period of nomadic 
habits. When the migrations ceased, the need 
of a larger power became evident. Tribes now 
united into a State, this union being effected 
either by alliance or conquest, and in this de- 
veloped form of social organisation both the clans 
and tribes lost much of their individual import- 
ance, the foundation of the State being again laid 
upon the organisation of the family, while clan 
and tribe remained "religious corporations" sim- 
ply, or acted as "the convenient units in the 
representation of the State." — (Wilson.) 

Institutional changes were brought about by 
the influence of race competition, as the changes 
wrought in the customs of various nations by war 
and the assimilation of conquerors and conquered, 
tended to bring about the abolition of slavery to 
habit. Another factor was the tendency toward 
imitation of the more successful and powerful 
races by their less favoured neighbours, who were 
led to change their own customs by adopting 
those of the rival race, finding this to be necessary 
if they wanted to make themselves capable of 



58 ANCIENT HISTORY 

attaining the same measure of success. In times 
of strife and conquest individual leaders in war, 
as well as pioneers in new countries, often broke 
the bonds of fixed custom, substituting their own 
individual ideas, which, under the circumstances, 
not being hampered by the dictates of conven- 
tionalities, they were easily able to do. If their 
measures were successful, they furnished the 
models for imitation by others, and thus new 
elements of change w T ere introduced into the 
national life. 

One of the earliest of these changes was the 
substitution of an elected ruler for the oldest 
member of the reigning family, who hitherto had 
invariably been chosen as the chieftain. Now 
the wisest or the bravest member was selected 
as the head, and often the choice was made from 
some other family. 

Undoubtedly the fact that real blood-relation- 
ship had become very obscure with the growth 
of tribes into nations, so that kinship was hope- 
lessly confused, had much to do with the bringing 
about this change, by which family government 
became distinctly separated from race government. 

While the State was still conceived as the 
family, its head was not now natural, but political. 
The hereditary title was eliminated, the family 
ceased to dominate the State, and the opposite 
became true. 



Loni 



G ONIA 



«M 








CHALDiEA, ASSYRIA, AND BABYLONIA 

37. The Mesopotamian Region. — We now come 
to the history of the Mesopotamian region, 
formed chiefly by the valley of the rivers Tigris 
and Euphrates. It begins in about longitude 
3 8° E. and latitude 3 8° N., and extends to the 
south-east until it narrows to a point on the 
Persian Gulf in about longitude 48 E., latitude 
3o°N. 

The southern part, lying between the two 
rivers, has for nearly 500 miles the characteristics 
of a valley, but the northern part is a hilly coun- 
try which finally develops into a plateau bordered 
on the north and east by mountain ranges. 

The sources of the Tigris and Euphrates are in 
the mountains of Armenia, the Euphrates rising 
on the north side of the mountain range, the Tigris 
on the south. The length of the Euphrates is 
about 1800 miles, of the Tigris about 1200 miles. 
Both rivers are subject to annual floods, which 
are caused by the snows in the Armenian moun- 
tains dissolving and filling the upper tributaries 
of the rivers. Unlike the Nile, whose over- 
flowing is very gradual and seldom accompanied 
by disaster, the waters of these streams, especially 

59 



60 A NCI EXT HISTORY 

those of the Tigris, rise so quickly sometimes as 
to submerge the valley in the course of a few 
hours, often occasioning great destruction. 

The fertility of the country was the wonder 
of the Western nations, and of Chaldsea Herod- 
otus says that grain yielded three hundred-fold, 
and that the blades of the wheat-plant and the 
barley-plant were often four fingers in width. 
Herodotus even declines to make any specified 
statement about the height of other plants for 
fear that he would be accused of exaggeration, 
and he adds that what he had written might also 
appear incredible to those who had not visited 
the country in person. 

This natural fertility was a great incentive to 
primitive man to establish his abode in this re- 
gion, and the numerous historic remains show 
that this was one of the earliest homes of the 
race. When one settlement had been established 
others were formed in rapid succession, and the 
necessity for the people to guard themselves 
against the floods of the rivers, to drain the 
marsh-lands, and the building of extended sys- 
tems of canals for the irrigation of sandy wastes 
which thus were made fertile, the soil itself being 
fruitful to an amazing degree, — all these circum- 
stances proved wonderful stimulants to the spirit 
of activity and ambition of the people. 

To-day the land is an alternate series of marshes 
and deserts, the canals having been left to decay 
and destruction, but even now they can be 



CHALDsEA, ASSY Rl A, AND BABYLONIA 6 1 

traced all over the country in an almost perfect 
network. 

38. The Accadians. — The name of Accadians is 
given to the original inhabitants of Chaldaea (the 
region south of the lower course of the Euphrates) , 
who are supposed to have been Turanians. The 
civilisation of the Chaldaeans was also greatly in- 
fluenced by the immigration into the valley of 
a Semitic people, probably Assyrian, whose lan- 
guage in course of time superseded the less per- 
fect Turanian speech of the Accadians. The 
first monarch to' gather the people of this region 
in one government was Sargon I., of Semitic 
origin, who had been king of Agade. 

39. The Elamites. — The Elamites, a people 
consisting of mixed tribes of Aryans and Turan- 
ians, formed an empire at the foot of the hills of 
Persia, east of Chaldaea, called Elam, or Susiana, 
w r ith a capital named Susa. 

Under the leadership of their great king, 
Kudur-Nakhunta, the Elamites conquered the 
Chaldaeans, about 2286 B.C., and while the kings 
who succeeded him retained Susa as their resi- 
dence, Chaldaea was under Elamite viceroys. 
From the year 2000 down to 1300 there remain 
almost no traces of the history of the Chaldaeans 
and it is a mere matter of conjecture. 

40. The Assyrians. — The Assyrians come from 
Semitic stock and are closely allied in descent 
with the Hebrews, Phoenicians, Syrians, and 
Northern Arabs, as of the branch called the 



62 ANCIENT HISTORY 

Aramaic. (The three branches of the Semitic 
stock are named the Aramaic, Hebraic, and 
Arabic.) They founded an empire north of 
Chaldaea. 

Dates beyond the year iooo b.c. in the chrono- 
logy of Assyria cannot now be verified, and the 
various forms of government that were in vogue 
in Assyria at different times can only be put 
down to a certain period by averaging the reigns 
of the rulers, the names of whom have been pre- 
served to our times with a sufficient record of 
their deeds. Before the middle of the fifteenth 
century b.c, Assyria was a dependency of Baby- 
lonia, and provincial governors were sent out 
from Babylonia, whose names have been pre- 
served. About 1400 b.c. they became independ- 
ent and from this time dates the early kingdom, 
until about 1300, when Tiglathi-Adar conquered 
Babylonia and founded the great Assyrian em- 
pire. From the reign of Asshur-Dayan II., 
about 930 b.c, the dates are reasonably estab- 
lished. With Tiglath-Pileser II. begins the second 
or later empire, which collapsed with the taking 
of the Assyrian capital by the combined forces of 
Cyaxares, the Median ruler, and of Nebuchad- 
nezzar, the son of Nabopolassar, whom the last 
king of Assyria, Saracus, himself had made vice- 
roy of Babylonia. 

The Assyrians were a proud and haughty peo- 
ple. The tablets found in the ruins of their cities 
are filled with sentences singing their own praise, 



CHALDMA, ASSYRIA, AND BABYLONIA 63 

and all other nations of the world were by them 
denounced as cowards, abandoned by the gods. 
The accusation of the Assyrians by the Hebrews 
as a cruel, treacherous people may well be be- 
lieved to have had a reasonable foundation. In 
their personal habits they resembled the Romans. 
At first they were, as a nation, robust and healthy. 
But with the wars, in which they were victorious, 
there came into their cities multitudes of captives, 
great quantities of riches, spoils, and treasures 
from the conquered cities. Then the kings them- 
selves began to set the example to their people 
in voluptuous living, and although the national 
character for a long time was proof against the 
consequences of this effeminating life, they, as the 
Romans, yielded to them and the nation fell into 
decay. In political science and in the organisa- 
tion of armies the Assyrians displayed a skill 
superior to any of their contemporaries, and in 
military achievements they are the equals, if 
not superiors, of all other nations of antiquity, 
excepting Rome. 

41. Babylonia. — Babylon gradually became the 
most important city of Chaldasa, and the new 
monarchy formed after the successful revolt 
against the Assyrians by the Babylonians under 
Nabopolassar and their allies is called Babylonia. 
Nebuchadnezzar was the most renowned king 
of Babylonia. He besieged and took Jerusalem 
which city had repeatedly revolted, and he also 
took the Phoenician city of Tyre after a siege of 



64 ANCIENT HISTORY 

thirteen years. Nabonadius was the last mon- 
arch of Babylonia. He formed an alliance with 
Croesus, the king of Lydia, in Asia Minor, against 
Cyrus the Great of Persia. Cyrus, after defeat- 
ing Crcesus, and depriving him of his empire, 
marched his army against Babylonia and de- 
feated Nabonadius, taking the capital about 
538 B.C. 

42. Language and Literature. — The language 
of the ancient Chaldseans (Accadians) was a com- 
posite language, but the vocabulary was essenti- 
ally Hamitic. Turanian influence is traced in the 
Chaldcean grammar and there were other foreign 
elements in the language, which makes the clas- 
sification very difficult. The dialect of Abyssinia 
is the nearest approach to the ancient Chaldaean, 
some of the words being nearly alike in both 
languages. 

Of the Assyrian language we have many traces 
left on tablets from the ruins of their palaces, 
which are covered with inscriptions in the cunei- 
form system of writing, consisting of wedge- 
shaped letters, these having been substituted by 
the Assyrians for the rectilinear symbols of the 
Chaldaean language. There are known about 
three hundred cuneiform signs which form the 
primary element of the Assyrian written lan- 
guage. The Assyrian alphabet has only nineteen 
simple letters, so that the other signs represent 
syllables and sometimes are placed before or 
after a word to indicate the character of same. 



CHALD&A, ASSYRIA, AND BABYLONIA 65 

For instance, the sign of the vertical wedge placed 
before a word indicated that it was the name of 
a man, while two horizontal and one vertical sign 
were to show that the word following was the 
name of a god. 

Of the Chaldasan cities, Erech was renowned 
for its great library and was called the city of 
books. The books of the Chaldaeans were writ- 
ten on clay tablets which were baked, and tablets 
containing matter of much importance were then 
again covered with a thin layer of clay and the 
writing duplicated. If the outer coating was 
destroyed the inner would show the text. The 
Chaldaean king, Sargon, holds an important posi- 
tion in the history of the people, having caused 
the literature of the Accadians to be translated 
into the Assyrian language. 

Assyria had but little native literature. It was 
essentially a land of soldiers, and learning had its 
seat in Babylonia. Not until the reign of Assur- 
banipal was there any attempt made to rival 
Babylon in any branch of learning. During his 
reign many grammars, dictionaries, and reading- 
books were written in Assyrian and even in the 
dead Accadian, and in these books we find the earl- 
iest traces of an analysis of the Semitic language. 

Every great city in Chaldaea had its library, 
and the libraries at Nineveh, Assur, and elsewhere 
were founded in imitation of this system. Most 
of the books were written on clay tablets as stated 
before, but papyrus was also used, although it is 



66 ANCIENT HISTORY 

now reasonably supposed that the use of papyrus 
preceded the use of the clay tablets, which do not 
seem to have been employed until the settlement 
of the Accadians in Mesopotamia. The books 
were kept in the libraries in order and were 
numbered, so that a student desiring a book had 
only to name the number selected from the cata- 
logue and the librarian handed it to him. There 
have been found fragments of a catalogue of the 
library at Agade, founded by Sargon, which dates 
back to the year 2000 b.c. The subjects of the 
literature were many sided. There are odes to 
the gods, resembling to a surprising degree the 
Hebrew psalms, and some of these were at later 
periods collected into a volume which was used 
for ritualistic purposes and was regarded as in- 
spired. Therefore it is often compared with the 
Rig- Veda of the Sanskrit. 

43. Architecture. — On account of the lack of 
stone in Chaldaea, the people had to confine them- 
selves to the use of brick in building their temples. 
The absence of stone structures accounts for the 
lack of outside ornamentation on Babylonian 
buildings, and the decoration of the interiors was 
accomplished by painting. There are very few 
specimens of Babylonian sculpture and this art 
did not attain any great degree of perfection. 
However, some small stones with sculptures have 
been found, and in the faces portrayed the differ- 
ence between the Chaldasan features and the 
Assyrian is very marked. Assyrian art must be 



CHALDMA, ASSYRIA, AND BABYLONIA &7 

regarded as parallel with later Babylonian, as 
both branched off from the Accadian. In Assyria, 
although there was an abundance of stone, the 
Babylonian style of building was followed and the 
accomplishments of the Babylonians in all other 
branches were closely copied. Of course the use 
of stone was not altogether dispensed with, so, 
for instance, the buildings of Nineveh were mostly 
of stone. Gem cutting, pottery, and metallurgy 
were some of the arts practised in the country. 

44. Religion. — The earliest religion of the Ac- 
cadians was Shamanism, the same as held to-day 
by some Siberian and Samoyed tribes. Every 
object had its spirit, good or bad, and the power 
for controlling these spirits rested with the priests 
and sorcerers. When the Semites intermingled 
with the Accadians their religions were also ab- 
sorbed and formed together one of the most in- 
fluential religions under the name of Baal worship. 
Assyrian religion is virtually the same as the later 
Chaldaean religion with the exception of a different 
designation for the head of. their deities, whom 
they named Asshur. 

45. Culture. — Astrology was created by the in- 
troduction of astronomy into religion, and con- 
sisted of the pretended art of forecasting events 
by the aspect of the stars. This system was very 
ingeniously developed and the astrologers of 
Chaldasa became known to all the Western nations. 
The Chaldaeans were led to the study of astronomy 
by the clear aspect of the sky of their country. 



68 ANCIENT HISTOR Y 

The most important work of the Accadians was 
the formation of a calendar. They divided the 
heavens into degrees, naming the twelve months 
after the zodiacal signs, divided the day into two 
halves of twelve hours each, and invented the 
week of seven days. 

About 2200 B.C. the calendar was invented. 
The year was made to count 360 days, 12 months 
of 30 days each. Intercalary months had to be 
added of course on account of the difference in 
days, and this was done every 6 years. The 
origin of magic rites can be traced to the desire of 
the Accadians to escape the evil influence of the 
bad spirits, which the priests claimed to be able to 
effect by charms and rites. 

46. The City of Babylon. — Babylon, the capital 
of Babylonia, was situated on both sides of the 
river Euphrates in latitude 32 N. The name, 
Bab-ili, signifies the " gate of god." On the site 
of old Babylon is the modern town of Hillah. 
Babylon was the largest and richest metropolis 
of the ancient world. 

The actual size of the old city is now very hard 
to determine with any degree of accuracy. The 
whole space once occupied by the city is now 
covered with mounds and ruins, which indicate to 
some measure the extent of the city, but in order 
to arrive at a conclusion, the writings of ancient 
historians must be referred to and of these 
Herodotus has left a good account of Babylon 
and her greatness. He states the length of the 



CHA LDMA , A SS YRIA , A ND BA B YL ONI A 69 

walls surrounding the city to have been 14 miles 
on each side, the city being in a square, or about 
56 miles in circumference. A conservative esti- 
mate of the size of the city places it at about 140 
square miles. The streets were broad and crossed 
each other at right angles, thus dividing the city 
into blocks. The walls had 25 gates on each side, 
or 100 in all. These gates were the ends of the 
streets and they divided the city into approxi- 
mately 625 squares, each of which comprised about 
100 acres. The buildings of Babylon were gener- 
ally three or four stories in height and were of 
brick for the most part, for the reason of the 
scarcity of stone mentioned before. The frame- 
work of the houses was of palm-wood. The 
Euphrates entered the city by an archway and 
all along the banks the quays were paved with 
bricks. On each side of the bank was a wall, to 
prevent the river from overflowing the street at 
the time of the yearly flood. 

The most remarkable structure of Babylon was 
the great temple of Belus, consisting of a great 
tower, on the top of which was placed the shrine of 
the deity. This temple was built very much after 
the manner of the pyramids of the Egyptians. 
The height was something over 480 feet. The 
royal palace, a structure measuring more than two 
miles around, surrounded with ramparts over 
seven miles in circumference, was of even greater 
dimensions than the temple but not as high. 
Within this palace were constructed the famous 



70 ANCIENT HISTORY 

hanging gardens. As to the so-called "Tower of 
Babel" it is not believed that the same stood 
within the city limits of Babylon. There is a 
heap of ruins about seventeen miles from the 
mounds that mark the site of the old city of 
Babylon, near the city of Borsippa, which is now 
accepted as the site of the historic structure. 

47. The Fall of Babylon. — After forming an 
alliance with the Lydian king, Croesus, Nabona- 
dius, King of Babylonia, foresaw that this would 
without doubt bring on a war with Cyrus the 
Great, of Persia. After the overthrow of the 
kingdom of the Medes, Cyrus at once set out on 
a career of conquest and began the war with 
Croesus, who did not await the aid of the Baby- 
lonians, but engaged Cyrus alone, with disastrous 
results to himself and his country. Nabonadius 
paid no heed to the conflict raging outside of his 
kingdom, but he was engaged all the time in 
strengthening the defences of Babylon. Enorm- 
ous battlements were constructed and the en- 
trances to the river were closed with bronze gates 
to prevent the enemy's entry into the streets 
even if he should succeed in entering the city by 
way of the river. When Cyrus crossed the Tigris 
without opposition, Nabonadius resolved to risk 
a battle in the open plain, but was defeated. He 
then retreated to Borsippa, hoping that the enemy 
would divide his forces, but the hope was in vain. 
Cyrus remained motionless before the city of 
Babylon, withdrew a part of his army some dis- 



CHALDJEA, ASSYRIA, AND BABYLONIA J I 

tance up the river, and began making arrange- 
ments for the diversion of the river from its bed 
into channels cut for the purpose. Then he pro- 
posed to enter the city when the river had sunk 
to such a level as would make a passage on both 
sides near the banks possible. After his work 
had been finished he waited until a great annual 
festival of the Babylonians was to take place. 
The Babylonians, to show their contempt for an 
enemy whom they supposed they had thwarted 
in his attempts to take the city, meanwhile made 
great preparations for the feast and when the 
time arrived, Belshazzar, with over a thousand 
nobles, recklessly gave himself up to riotous feast- 
ing. When they were in the midst of their revelry 
Cyrus opened the sluices he had constructed and 
entered the city without opposition. The drunken 
Babylonians fled in all directions, and Belshazzar 
and his nobles were slain by the victorious Persians 
(538 B.C.). 

Nabonadius still remained at Borsippa await- 
ing an attack by Cyrus, but the latter surprised 
him, and, seeing the uselessness of battling against 
the inevitable, Nabonadius surrendered with hon- 
ours, and was made governor of Carmania. 

With the fall of Babylon the glory of a great 
nation vanished for ever. 

48. Chronology. 

The old Babylonian period 4500-1 314 B.C. 

Assyrian period 13 14- 606 " 



72 ANCIENT HISTORY 

Tiglath-Pileser III., conqueror of 

Babylonia 745-727 B.C. 

Salmanasar 727-722 " 

Sargon, the most celebrated of the 

Assyrian monarchs 722-705 

Sennacherib 705-681 

Esarhaddon 681-668 

Assurbanipal 668-626 

Nineveh destroyed 606 

New Babylonian period 626-538 

Nabopolassar 626-605 

Nebuchadnezzar 605-562 

After the death of Nebuchadnezzar 

the empire declined 
Nabonadius, the last king of Baby- 
lon 55 6 -538 

Babylon under Persian sway 538 






J| 0C tci 

6 S y> ] 
Eo a 2 — 



. H O 






THE HEBREWS 

49. Early History. — All the ancient nations 
enriched the world succeeding them by the 
results of their labours in the fields of art and 
sciences, with the exception of the Hebrews. 
This fact notwithstanding, we must thank this 
people for one important element left by them to 
the modern world, and this is the principle of 
righteousness which they taught. 

Hebrew history begins with the departure of 
Abraham out of Ur, about 2000 B.C. At first the 
Hebrews were a roving people who came from 
beyond the Euphrates and wandered from place 
to place in the then sparsely settled Palestine, in 
search of pastures for their flocks. A period of ex- 
tended drought in Palestine forced the families of 
Israel to emigrate to the more fruitful regions of 
the valley of the Nile. About 1900 b.c. Abraham 
made a visit to Egypt and in 1 700 b.c. the Hebrews 
settled in a district assigned to them by Pharaoh 
in the land of Goshen, on the delta of the Nile, 
which was a very fertile country. For a long 
period the Hebrews remained in Egypt and they 
multiplied greatly in numbers and became pro- 
sperous. After the expulsion of the shepherd 

73 



74 ANCIENT HISTORY 

kings from Egypt the rulers of Egypt became 
fearful lest the Hebrews should revolt and become 
the enemies of the Egyptians. The persecution 
of the Israelites, which is recorded in the scrip- 
tures, had its cause also in the many clashes that 
were the natural result of the opposing religions 
of the two peoples, the Hebrews being monotheists 
and the Egyptians polytheists and animal wor- 
shippers. The long contest between Moses and 
Aaron on one side and the Eygptian priests and 
magicians on the other was brought to an abrupt 
close by a series of plagues that befell the country 
and which, by the Egyptians, was ascribed to the 
influence of the Hebrews. They now changed 
their demeanour and although previously they 
had refused to allow the Hebrews to leave Egypt 
they now themselves asked them to go. The 
Hebrews were then quite numerous and are said 
to have had over 600,000 fighting men. After 
the Hebrews had obtained permission to leave the 
'country, Pharaoh again repented his decision, see- 
ing that he was losing a vast number of subjects, 
who, as slaves employed in the construction of 
his edifices, had been of mucli value to him. He 
placed a large army in the field, started in pur- 
suit, and overtook them on the shores of the Red 
Sea. But his army became entangled in treacher- 
ous quicksands, and the fleeing Israelites made 
their journey without being further molested. 

For a whole generation after their flight from 
Egypt the Israelites were a nomad nation on the 



THE HEBREWS 75 

peninsula of Sinai, and it is to the influence of the 
hardships encountered in this period that they 
had to ascribe their ability to conquer the inhab- 
itants of Palestine, against whom in the low condi- 
tion of character which was the natural result of 
their having been used as slaves by the Pharaohs, 
they -could not have been expected to make much 
progress. However, now they had gained much 
in independence of spirit and under the leadership 
of Moses they started out against Jericho. Moses 
died on Mount Nebo, in sight of the country he 
had longed for so long. Joshua was his successor 
in the leadership. He led the Hebrews across the 
Jordan, captured the city of Jericho, and sub- 
jugated most of the tribes then inhabiting Pales- 
tine. A long period of theocracy, the direct 
rule of divine law, followed the settlement of the 
Hebrews in Palestine and they had no kings or 
rulers. The heroic names of Jephthah, Gideon, 
Samson, and others, which have been handed 
down to posterity, are those of the judges who 
interpreted and administered the divine law under 
inspiration from God. In the main* they were 
leaders of the tribes in their battles against the 
many foes whom the advancing prosperity of the 
country had attracted. The last of the judges 
was Samuel. After his death the monarchy was 
established, about 1095 b.c. 

The Hebrews had no central government dur- 
ing the period just described. Very soon, how- 
ever, they began to see the dangers which were 



y6 ANCIENT HISTORY 

confronting them in the many tribes, half sub- 
jugated, but nevertheless dangerous in case of 
revolt, and in order to effect a closer union between 
themselves they selected Saul, from the tribe of 
Benjamin, as their first ruler, about noo B.C. 
Saul succeeded in conquering the enemies of the 
Israelites and brought the affairs of the nation 
into better order. Toward the end of his reign 
his mind gave way and he was subject to frequent 
spells of insanity. He died in battle, with his 
three sons, in a war against the Philistines, about 
1050 B.C. 

50. David. — Saul's successor was David, of the 
tribe of Judah. He reigned from 1050 to about 
10 10 B.C. David had been selected to the crown 
by the prophet Samuel and thus he was acknow- 
ledged by the people although he was compelled 
first to crush the attempt made by Ishbosheth, 
the son of Saul, to gain the crown for himself. 
David was a great warrior-king. He conquered 
the various Canaanite tribes and took the strong- 
hold of the Jebusites, called Jebus, and naming 
it Jerusalem, made it the capital of Palestine. 
David's son Absalom was slain in a revolt against 
his father, and his second son, Adonijah, commit- 
ted a similar crime and was excluded from the 
succession. On his death-bed he left the crown 
to his youngest son Solomon. 

51. Solomon. — Under Solomon (about 1015 to 
975 b.c) the State reached its highest pinnacle of 
splendour. He was not a great general, like his 



THE HEBREWS J J 

father, but was a patron of architecture, arts, and 
learning. He built the temple planned by his 
father David. The luxury and splendour with 
which he adorned his court were the causes of 
suffering by his people upon whom was laid a 
heavy burden of taxation in consequence of the 
king's extravagance. 

52. The Division of the Kingdom. — After the 
death of Solomon, Rehoboam, his son, succeeded 
to the reign, but he proved himself so cruel and 
without regard for the rights of the people, that 
they finally revolted, with the exception of the 
tribes of Judah and Benjamin. The rebels were 
successful and with Jeroboam as king they set up 
a new kingdom in the north of Palestine which was 
called the kingdom of Israel; the southern, with 
Jerusalem as its capital, was called the kingdom 
of Judah. While as a unit the Hebrews might 
have withstood the onslaught of various warring 
peoples, divided into two small kingdoms they 
were unable to hold their own, and the division 
marks their destiny to extinction as a nation. 
Besides, especially in the kingdom of Israel, in- 
ternal dissensions accelerated the final fall, be- 
cause of the many struggles amongst them on 
account of religious differences. The pure mono- 
theistic doctrines left to them by the patriarchs 
were valorously defended by the teachers and 
prophets, among whom were Elijah and Elisha, 
but idolatry was being brought into common use 
and resulted in a moral degeneration of the 



78 ANCIENT HISTORY 

Hebrews. Their defence against Sargon, King 
of the Assyrians, was very feeble, and the in- 
vasion resulted in the taking of the capital 
Samaria and the carrying away into captivity of 
the ten tribes, who thus were entirely lost to 
history. Subjects of Assyria rilled the devastated 
country and they, having intermingled with the 
remnants of the poorer classes still remaining in 
the land, formed the Samaritans of the period of 
Christ. The kingdom of Israel lasted about 250 
years, from 975-722 b.c. 

The kingdom of Judah maintained an independ- 
ent existence for about four centuries. About 
eighteen kings sat upon its throne, but when 
Babylonia was extending its domain towards the 
•west, the kingdom of Judah was forced to ac- 
knowledge the suzerainty of the kings of Babylon. 
About 150 years after the taking of the ten tribes 
into exile, the southern kingdom shared the fate 
of the kingdom of Israel when Nebuchadnezzar, 
King of Babylon, took Jerusalem and led a large 
part of the people and the king, Zedekiah, into 
captivity. This event ended the history of the 
Hebrews as a nation. It was afterward, except 
for a brief period under the Maccabees, a province 
of the Babylonian, Persian, Macedonian, and 
Roman empires. Cyrus, after the capture of 
Babylon, permitted the Jews to return to Jeru- 
salem and to restore their temples, and thus for a 
short time they again became residents of their 
own country. They re-established an independent 



THE HEBREWS 79 

government about 1 66 B.C., which they main- 
tained till conquered by the Romans under 
Pompey, 64 B.C. In the second generation of 
our era, a.d. 70, the Romans laid the city waste 
because of the many revolts of the people. Over 
one million people are said to have been slain 
and the remnants exiled into different lands. 

53. Religion. — The religion of the Hebrews, 
monotheism, was the fundamental element in the 
national character and in their history. They 
began national life with the religious instinct 
developed to such a degree, and maintained their 
religion against the idolatrous forms of worship 
of the people among whom they lived so firmly, 
that this characteristic can be taken as an ex- 
planation for their rapid downfall which came 
about when internal dissensions had caused the 
nation to be divided and other religions to be 
introduced. Even to this day they maintain 
their character as a race by this same trait of 
firmness in the pursuit of their religion, as other- 
wise they would soon be absorbed by the differ- 
ent races among whom they are dispersed. The 
literature of the Hebrews consisted of the Old 
Testament Scriptures. The New Testament must 
be reckoned as a part of Hebrew literature, being 
purely Hebrew in thought and doctrine. This 
forms the basis of the Christian faith. Other writ- 
ings are the Apocrypha, written after the decline 
of the prophetic spirit, and showing the influ- 
ence of Persian and Greek thought ; the Talmud, 



80 ANCIENT HISTORY 

a book of Jewish customs and traditions which 
is to this time revered by the Jews as the Sacred 
Book; the writings of the rabbi Philo; and 
finally, the works of the historian Josephus. 



THE PHCENICIANS 

54. Land and People. — Phoenicia is the name 
of a narrow strip of land between the Mediter- 
ranean and the mountain range of Lebanon. 
The most noted product of the country is the 
cedar of Lebanon, a fir timber, which holds a pro- 
minent place in the history of the East. Another 
was the so-called Tyrian purple, obtained from a 
species of shell-fish. The mineral wealth of the 
country was small, the principal mines being of 
iron; amber was also mined. The vine and the 
date-palm flourished and another resource of the 
country were the fisheries along the coast. 

The Phoenicians were of Semitic origin and 
called themselves Kena'an, or Canaanites. The 
ancestors of this people dwelt on the Gulf of Persia 
whence they emigrated to the West, and they 
were in possession of Palestine when Abraham 
arrived in that country. A part of the tribes 
pushed farther on into Egypt, settling in the Nile 
delta and no doubt helped to form the power of 
the shepherd kings. Of the primitive tribes that 
settled on the coast of Syria there are known at 
least five: the Sidonians, Arbadites, Gibilites, 
Lemarites, and Arkites. Although their country 

6 

81 



82 ANCIENT HISTORY 

was very small, extending for about 150 miles at a 
width of land varying from 10 to 15 miles, they 
there laid the foundation to one of the most im- 
portant nations of the primitive world. How- 
ever, they can hardly be called a nation in a 
political sense. They had a confederacy of cities 
with Sidon and Tyre in succession at the head. 
Later they were subject to Assyrian and other 
rulers, including Alexander. 

From the very beginning of their settlement 
in the country the Phoenicians undertook dis- 
tant sea-voyages and their activity at sea became 
truly prodigious. The motives for this activity 
were different. The search for adventures may 
have been the primary cause, and piracy was no 
doubt connected with the early excursions of the 
Phoenicians, and no bay in the Mediterranean 
was safe from their visitation. However, com- 
mercial purposes were predominating and they 
were quick to discover the places of manufacture 
of articles of luxury, which they could easily 
make a source of profitable dealings. They were 
proficient to a marked degree in the weaving of the 
finest fabrics, and the kings of the East and the 
West were clad in the garments manufactured 
by the Phoenicians. They held the monopoly 
of the trade of antiquity. Although many in- 
ventions are ascribed to the Phoenicians, they 
were adapters rather, and disseminators, of the 
various arts practised by other nations, and 
gained much of their fame by their ability to ac- 



THE PHCENICIANS 83 

quire the accomplishments of others and improve 
them. It can hardly be said, even if this view be 
taken, that their reputation suffers thereby. So 
for instance they took from the Egyptians the 
manufacture of glass, but they improved its manu- 
facture and even made glass mirrors. 

To the Phoenicians is accredited the phonetic 
alphabet, which having been disseminated by 
them along the routes of their voyages, has become 
the basis of the alphabets of the Aryan peoples. 
It must not be supposed, however, that they were 
the inventors, i.e., that no alphabet had been 
used before theirs was brought out. They simply 
took away from the old hieroglyphical symbols 
of the Egyptians their meaning of denoting ob- 
jects besides being phonetic representations, but 
retained their phonetic value. The alphabet of 
the Phoenicians consisted of twenty-two phonetic 
symbols and the writing was done from right to 
left. From the Phoenician characters were de- 
rived the characters of Hebrew and Arabic; the. 
original alphabet was taken up by the Greeks, 
with some modifications, and by them transferred 
to the Romans. The alphabet may be regarded 
as the most precious heritage left by these an- 
cient people to the modern world. 



THE PERSIANS 

55. Early History. — The Persians at first were 
subjects of the Medes. In the reign of Astyages, 
the son of Cyaxares, who was the first prominent 
ruler of the Medes, the Persians revolted, however, 
under the leadership of Cyrus, and succeeded in 
freeing themselves from the bondage of the Medes. 
On the march against Cyrus the soldiers of the 
king of the Medes himself, who most likely were 
drawn from his Aryan subjects, gave him into the 
hands of the enemy. The Aryan Medes acknow- 
ledged the supremacy of Cyrus and the empire 
of Cyaxares was thus destroyed, about 558 B.C. 
The older populace of Media retained their ad- 
herence to their ruler, but in about 546 Cyrus put 
an army in the field and destroyed the last relics 
of Median independence. Cyrus at once began a 
career of conquest and succeeded in building up 
a powerful empire. Immediately after the con- 
quest of the Medians he set out against the 
Babylonians. They were awaited by a large 
Babylonian army entrenched near Sippara, and 
the Persians decided to march against the king of 
Lydia, Croesus. After the taking of the city of 
Sardis, the entire territory of Asia Minor was 

84 



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Map of £7^ Persian Empire and Borderlands* 



THE PERSIANS 85 

added to the domain of the Persians. They now- 
proceeded against Babylonia and were successful 
in capturing the capital, it is said, by branching 
off the Euphrates into sluices they had constructed 
and entering the city through the river bed during 
the annual festivities of the Babylonians. By 
others it is stated that Gobryas, the Persian gen- 
eral, entered the city with his army, having re- 
ceived the aid of traitors. The fall of Babylon 
brought with it the submission of the kings tribu- 
tary to the Babylonians, including the Phoenicians. 
As Greek legends have it, Cyrus, who had assumed 
the kingship in 558 B.C., fell in battle with some 
wild Scythian tribes, in 529 B.C. However, there 
are no positive records attesting to the circum- 
stances of his • death, and, as had been the case 
with his childhood, another mythical story is 
given about his death. Cyrus was succeeded on 
the throne by his son Cambyses, who reigned from 
529 until 522 B.C. 

56. Darius I. (521-486 B.C.). — Gomates, the 
usurper of the Persian throne, was overthrown by 
Darius, son of Hystaspes, with the aid of other 
Persian nobles. During the first years of his 
reign, Darius was kept busy subduing revolts in 
different parts of his vast domains. After the 
work of the subjugation of the revolutionists had 
been accomplished, Darius devoted himself to 
the more peaceful pursuits of organising his gov- 
ernment, building post-roads, palaces, and tem- 
ples, revising the coinage, and making permanent 



86 ANCIENT HISTORY 

records of events. After a period of peace Darius 
again took up the command of his army in order 
to execute some of his vast plans for the enlarging 
of his dominions. The Indus was first explored 
by a naval expedition under Skylax, and this was 
followed by a rapid conquest of the Punjab. 
Then the Scythian coast was explored as the In- 
dus had been, the Bosporus was bridged by Man- 
drocles, and the Persian army entered that part 
of Southern Europe which to-day is Southern 
Russia. After a short campaign his army re- 
turned, without having accomplished much; still 
the impression made by the Persians upon the 
Scythians was such that henceforth Persia had 
nothing to fear from that source. A part of the 
Persian army, under Magabazos, made Macedonia 
a tributary to the Persians and conquered Thrace. 
In about 500 B.C. the Ionians in the dependencies 
of Asia Minor revolted and Sardis was burned by 
the Athenians. Darius at once set out to punish 
the offenders, but his large fleet was wrecked off 
Mount Athos and his army was decimated by 
some wild hordes of Thrace. In 490 b.c. another 
Persian army was sent out against the Greeks 
under the command of Datis. This army, hith- 
erto believed invincible, was defeated at Marathon 
by the Athenians under Miltiades. For the three 
years following this battle Darius was steadily 
preparing himself for a new expedition against the 
Greeks. Fortunately for the latter, just after his 
preparations had been completed, a revolt broke 



THE PERSIANS %"] 

out in Egypt and diverted the stroke which other- 
wise would have fallen on Greece. Before the 
suppression of the revolt Darius died, about 486 

B.C. 

57. Xerxes I. (486-465 b. a). — Xerxes I., the 
son and successor of Darius, was very different in 
character from his father, being weak, vain, and 
luxurious. After crushing the revolt in Egypt he 
marched a large army into Greece, but after over- 
whelming the Spartans at Thermopylae and sack- 
ing Athens he met with defeat at Plataea and 
his fleet was destroyed at the battle of Salamis. 
These defeats resulted in many revolts against the 
Persians, and from the date of the victory of the 
Athenians over the Persians dates the foundation 
of the Athenian empire, which made Athens the 
intellectual leader of the world. Xerxes is said 
to have been murdered at the instigation of his 
wife, Amertris, by two of his courtiers, in 466 B.C. 

Artaxerxes I., Longimanus, the third son of 
Xerxes, succeeded to the throne after defeating 
the Bactrians under command of his brother 
Hystaspes and after murdering another brother. 

Xerxes II., the successor of Artaxerxes, reigned 
only for forty-five days and was then murdered 
by his illegitimate brother, Sogdianos. Sogdi- 
anos in return was murdered by Okhos, another 
illegitimate brother. Okhos reigned under the 
name of Darius II., and his reign of nineteen 
years was one unbroken series of revolts, internal 
troubles, and dissensions. 



88 ANCIENT HISTOR Y 

Darius II. was followed by his son, Artaxerxes 
II., named Mnemon, because of his remarkable 
memory. His younger brother Cyrus attempted 
to seize the throne and marched against him at 
the head of an army consisting of 13,000 Greeks 
and 100,000 natives. In the battle of Cunaxa, 
however, he lost his life and the claim to the 
throne. The retreat of Xenophon from this bat- 
tle with his 10,000 Greeks is noted as one of the 
great feats of history. 

58. End of the Persian Empire. — From this date 
the decay of the Persian empire could not be 
checked. Internal troubles were brewing without 
interruption, and after the death of Artaxerxes his 
son Okhos was not very successful in his attempts 
to restore the balance of power. Okhos was 
poisoned in 338 by his Vizier Bagoas, a eunuch, 
and the son of Bagoas, Arses, was placed upon the 
throne of Persia. A few years later Arses was as- 
sassinated with his children, and Bagoas placed the 
crown on the head of Codomannos, who took 
the name of Darius III. In 334 b.c. Alexander, 
the son of Philip of Macedon, with a small army of 
35,000 Greeks, crossed the Hellespont and marched 
against the Persians, whom he defeated in the 
great battles of Granicus, Issus, and Arbela. 
Darius took refuge in the plains of Assyria and 
was treacherously murdered by one of his own 
satraps, named Bessus. 

59. Religion. — The Persian religion was Zoro- 
astrianism, named after Zoroaster, its founder. 



THE PERSIANS 89 

who is said to have lived about iooo b.c. Zoro- 
aster taught belief in a supreme being called 
Ormuzd. Ahriman, the ' ' dark spirit, ' ' was believed 
to be constantly endeavouring to destroy the 
good creations of Ormuzd, which base influence 
could only be offset by the elimination of vice and 
evil from thought and action, by the killing of all 
bad animals, as snakes, frogs, and lizards, and by 
the reclaiming of desert land and barren wastes. 

Zoroastrianism was greatly influenced by the 
religion of the people with whom the Persians were 
in steady contact, and Magianism, the worship of 
elements of nature, — fire, water, air, and earth, — 
was modified and introduced by them. Although 
the form of worship was Magian, the spirit of the 
religion still remained Zoroastrian. 

60. Architecture and Arts of the Persians Com- 
pared with those of Babylonia, Phoenicia, the Hebrews, 
and Egypt. — Persian arts and architecture were 
derived from the Babylonians, but in nearly all 
respects the products were inferior to Chaldsean 
work. In Babylonia it was necessary to raise the 
buildings because of the marshy lands ; in Persia, 
where this was not needed, the palaces were 
nevertheless raised on high platforms adorned 
with broad staircases. The palaces as a rule were 
not of large size, but comprised a large number of 
columns, which again were taken from the Baby- 
lonians. Egyptian influence may be detected in 
the propylaea through which the palaces were 
approached. 



90 ANCIENT HISTORY 

In Babylonia the buildings had to be erected of 
brick instead of stone, and only for such small 
objects as seals and signets stone was used. Their 
greatest works of architecture were the temples, 
which rose stage upon stage, painted and sur- 
mounted by a chamber which was the shrine of 
the deity. The use of columns in architecture is 
said to have had its origin in Babylonia, and it is 
even asserted that the Doric and Ionic pillars of 
Greece must be traced to Babylonia and not to 
Egypt. However, while in Greek architecture 
the column is a real support, in Babylonia, where 
the columns were made to rest on the backs of 
winged bulls, dogs, and lions, these fantastic forms 
made them more of ornamental than practical 
use. 

The Phoenicians assimilated the art of Baby- 
lonia, Egypt, and Assyria, and by a free use of the 
rosette and palm leaf, borrowed from Babylonia, 
the Sphinx, from Egypt, the winged cherub, from 
Assyria, and by various modifications of their 
own, managed to create a style, to some extent at 
least, original. 

The intellect and imagination of the Hebrews 
having always been devoted to one single all- 
absorbing theme, that of religion, of worship, and 
of ceremonies suitable to the celebration of rituals, 
it cannot be expected that they could have ex- 
ercised much ability in arts and architecture. 
While they were a nomadic nation, all thoughts 
of arts were excluded, and even after they had 



THE PERSIANS 9 1 

settled in permanent abodes the same spirit pre- 
vailed, and they had a prejudice against all forms 
of pictures and art in general. From their tem- 
ples, of which the one at Jerusalem was the most 
important, all architectural art was absent. 
There was no attempt at beauty of form or execu- 
tion, the simplest design being deemed sufficient, 
and while the decorations were splendid and rich, 
they, of course, did not improve the artistic value 
of the architecture of the edifices. 

The arts of Egypt are divided into two periods. 
The first is that of the pyramid-builders. It is 
realistic, full of original genius. That of the 
later period is stiff, conventional. In comparison 
with the nations above enumerated, their monu- 
ments were planned and executed on plans so 
vast, so great, that none but themselves could 
successfully carry out the work. The influence of 
Egyptian art upon the other ancient nations can 
hardly be estimated, and traces of it are found not 
only in the East, but also in the western parts of 
the lands on the Mediterranean. Various articles 
of their manufacture are now found in mounds in 
Etruria, Greece, and Asia Minor, although the 
credit for many of their inventions was formerly 
given to the Phoenicians, who were the dissemi- 
nators only. 



GREECE 
A — The History of Greece 

61. The Country. — Geography is a prime factor 
in the development of a nation, and Greece's posi- 
tion undoubtedly contributed to the importance 
it attained in history. One historian remarks 
that "with the exception of religion, there is no 
important manifestation in our civilisation to-day 
whose germs cannot be found in the civilisation 
of Greece." 

The mainland of Greece can be said to be no- 
thing more than a series of peninsulas and gulfs, 
the Gulf of Corinth being the most marked. - The 
country is mountainous in character, there being 
twenty-five hills over 3000 feet in height within 
the small limits of Greece. The most important 
of these mountains is the Olympus, about 9700 
feet high, which by the Greeks was supposed to be 
the highest mountain on earth, and whose top, 
reaching into the clouds, was by them believed to 
be the abode of their many gods. From the sea 
the mountains seem much higher than they really 
are, many of them rising with abruptness from 

92 



LYBIi 



xS 



GREECE 93 

the edge of the water. The country is quite bare 
of trees and the form of vegetation changes from 
the lowlands to the tops of the mountain ranges. 
The varying mountain forms, the rich pale blue 
air, the many arms of the sea reaching far into the 
heart of the land, this scenery bathed in light so 
strong as to make it almost painful to look at, — 
these were some of the influences which helped to 
make the people of ancient Greece the most im- 
portant in all history. The many islands that 
play an important part in Greek history are scat- 
tered profusely over the sea between the main- 
land and the peninsula of Asia Minor. Eubcea 
and Crete are the largest. 

The mainland has a great number of plains 
seemingly hollowed out among the mountains. 
They are very likely drained-off lakes, and the 
plains of Marathon, Thessalia, Argos, and Bceotia 
are famous not only for the battles that have been 
fought on them, but also for the richer vegetation. 
Of rivers there are few and those of insignificant 
length, which can easily be accounted for, no 
place on the Greek mainland being more than 
forty miles distant from the sea. The winters are 
severe and the mountains fill with snow, so that in 
the spring the rivers are filled with a surging 
mass of waters that swiftly descend to the sea- 
coast and plunge into the sea. For the greater 
part of the year, however, they scarcely reach 
their destination and the river beds form a chain 
of pools all summer. There are many lakes, but 



94 ANCIENT HISTORY 

in summer these also generally become marshes 
infested by insects. 

The topography of Greece exercised a great in- 
fluence upon the development of the character 
and the forming of the history of its people. The 
way in which the mountain ranges, the sea, and 
land locked in each other was a great factor in 
forming the national temper, and their isolation 
from the influences of the neighbouring communi- 
ties by the mountains must be taken as the initial 
argument in favour of their singular formation of 
small "States" or cities, which always remained 
separated from each other in point of government, 
although all the people of Greece spoke the same 
language, followed the same customs, and had a 
common ancestry. 

62. The Pelasgians. — The Pelasgians are reported 
by the Hellenes, the Greeks of historic times, to 
have been the original inhabitants of Greece. They 
are regarded by some as the Aryan pioneers of Eu- 
rope and bear the same relation to the Greeks as 
the Celts do to the Teutons. By some they are be 
lieved to have been merely the prehistoric ances- 
tors, without any distinction of race at all, of the 
Hellenes. They were a race somewhat beyond the 
stage of barbarism and were agriculturists. Of their 
masonry, in the forms of walls surrounding their 
cities, many remnants are found in various parts 
of Greece. Their chief deity was the Dodonean 
Zeus, so-called from his temple at Dodona. He 
was the same divinity as the Zeus of the Hellenes. 



GREECE 95 

63. The Hellenes. — -The Hellenes appear in his- 
tory in the eighth century B.C., when we find 
them in possession of Greece, of the islands be- 
tween the mainland and Asia Minor, and of a part 
of the western coast of Asia Minor. Of their 
prehistoric wanderings very little is known. How- 
ever, it has been ascertained that they belonged to 
the Aryan family, that they and the Romans 
were of the same ancestry, that for some periods 
they inhabited the same country, and that the 
ancestors of the Hellenes proper constituted one 
tribe before they separated into the four families 
known as the Ionians, Dorians, ^Eolians, and 
Achaians. 

The Ionians attained the greatest proficiency in 
arts and philosophy, being a many-sided, imagina- 
tive people open to the influences of the outer 
world. Their education developed body, mind, 
and spirit. The most important of the Ionian 
cities was Athens. 

The Dorians were a race pre-eminently unim- 
aginative and practical, whose speech and art 
were alike devoid of all ornament. Their educa- 
tion was military and gymnastic, mainly devoted 
to the development of the body, and they were 
able warriors. Their most noted city was Sparta. 
The Dorians and Ionians were rivals to such an 
extent, that to this fact is attributed the final 
decay of Greece. 

The ^Eolians is the name of a race which cannot 
be well defined, and by many the name was used 



g6 ANCIENT HISTORY 

to include all the Hellenes not described as 
Ionians and Dorians. 

The Achaians were the predominant people of 
the Peloponnesus during the heroic period, and 
their name is frequently used for the whole Greek 
people of that day by Homer and other early 
writers. 

64. Oriental Immigrants. — The chief Oriental 
immigrants, who from the Eastern countries 
brought into Greece the seed of their great 
achievements in art, philosophy, and literature, 
were Cecrops, from Egypt, who is said to have 
been the builder of the citadel, Cecropia, of 
Athens ; Danaus, also from Egypt, the builder of 
the citadel of Argos; Cadmus, from Phoenicia, 
founder of the city of Thebes, to whom is accred- 
ited the bringing into Greece of the Phoenician 
alphabet; Pelops, from Phrygia, after whom the 
Peloponnesus was named. 

65. The City the Political Unit. — Although all 
the Greeks spoke the same language and wor- 
shipped the same gods, they never constituted 
one state. The political unit with them was the 
city. One city from the other was as much sepa- 
rated as one modern nation from the other. A 
citizen of one city was an alien in the others. He 
could not marry a woman not of his own city, nor 
could he hold property in any city but his own. 
It must not be supposed that the idea of the Greeks 
of a city was similar to that of our own times. 
With them the term "city" was intended for a 



GREECE 97 

territory or a district. However, a city was not 
"ideal," unless it comprised a town surrounded 
by walls, with temples, theatres, and gymnasia. 
The city, as it were, consisted not of one city in 
our meaning, but sometimes included a great num- 
ber of villages, towns, and single habitations or 
farms, which all, as a unit, constituted the " city." 
Thus, for instance, Athens, the city, comprised 
about 175 villages and towns, many of the latter 
surrounded by walls. Yet all the people in these 
places were citizens of Athens proper and as such 
entitled to vote at the capital. Their "ideal" 
city, as Aristotle said, must not be overlarge, and 
one of ten thousand inhabitants was deemed the 
best in size. Still the " city " of Athens numbered 
about twenty to thirty thousand inhabitants. 

66. Grecian Myths. — From that point in Gre- 
cian mythology where the godlike ends and the 
heroic begins, until the dawn of real Grecian his- 
tory, about 800 b.c, extends the so-called legend- 
ary age. The Grecian myths are thoroughly 
interwoven into all modern literature. 

67. The Story of Heracles. — Heracles was the 
son of Alcmene, the wife of Amphitryon, by Zeus. 
The intention of his father, Zeus, to put him on 
the throne of Tiryns, a copy of Argolis, was 
thwarted by Hera, the wife and sister of Zeus. 
Hera consented to his being made immortal on 
condition that he perform twelve superhuman 
feats, called the "twelve labours" of Heracles. 
These feats were performed for Eurystheus, his 



98 ANCIENT HISTORY 

rival in the claim to the throne of Tiryns. The 
following were the twelve labours of Heracles: 
the strangling of the lion of Nemaea ; the slaying 
of the nine-headed hydra ; the capture of the Ar- 
cadian stag with golden horns ; the capture alive 
of the boar of Erymanthia ; the cleaning of the 
Augean stables, where three thousand oxen had 
been stabled for thirty years ; the destruction of 
the Stymphalian birds; the capture of the bull 
of Creta; the captures of the man-eating mares 
of Diomedes ; the taking away from Hippolyte, the 
queen of the Amazons, of the girdle that had been 
given to her by Ares, the god of war and son of 
Zeus and Hera ; the capture of the oxen of Gery- 
ones, a three-headed monster living in the island 
of Erythesia ; the procuring of the golden apples 
of the Hesperides, the daughters of Atlas, a Titan, 
and of Hesperis ; and finally the bringing up from 
the underworld of Cerberus, the guardian of the 
Hades. Heracles spent his life performing other 
feats for the good of mankind, and at last ascended 
from a burning pyre into a place among the im- 
mortal gods. The legend of Heracles can be traced 
directly to the old Babylonian legend of Izdubar, 
also called Gilgamesh, and Heracles was the bor- 
rowed Phoenician sun-god, adapted by the Phoe- 
nicians from the Accadians. 

68. Theseus. — Theseus was the chief hero of 
Attica. He was the son of vEgeus, the king of 
Athens. He was brought up at Troezen, the 
ancient Poseidonia, a copy of the Peloponnesus, 



GREECE 99 

about forty miles from Athens. When he reached 
mature age he set out for Athens, which he 
reached after many adventures. He was acknow- 
ledged by .^Egeus as his son and performed many 
wonderful feats. Among others he captured the 
Marathonian bull, and when the Athenians were 
sending their yearly tribute of maidens to the 
Minotaur, a monster which Minos, the king of 
Crete, kept in a labyrinth, he went with them and 
slew the monster with the aid of Ariadne, the 
daughter of Minos, who gave him a sword and a 
ball of thread by means of which he traced his 
steps in the labyrinth. On his return to Athens 
he forgot to hoist the white sail which was to have 
been the signal that 'he had been victorious. 
^)geus, believing that his son had lost his life, 
threw himself into the sea. Thus Theseus be- 
came king of Attica. He also fought with the 
Amazons, was one of the Argonauts, and fought 
against the Centaurs, the horse-man monsters of 
Thessalia. 

69. The Argonaut Expedition. — An expedition 
of heroes was sailed in the ship Argo to Colchis, in 
quest of the Golden Fleece. This fleece belonged to 
the winged ram Chrysomallus, who has been given 
to Phrixus and Helle, children of the king of 
Thessaly, Athamas, to aid them in their attempt 
to escape from the persecution of their step- 
mother, Ino. In their flight over the narrow 
strait separating Europe from Asia Minor, Helle 
fell off and was drowned, from which episode 

Lore 



IOO ANCIENT HISTORY 

dates the name of the Hellespont. Phrixus found 
an asylum in the palace of ^Etes, the king of Col- 
chis. He sacrificed the ram to Zeus and the 
fleece was hung up in the grove of Ares. It was 
in quest of this fleece that the argonautic expedi- 
tion went forth under the leadership of Jason, 
with whom were Heracles, Admetus, Theseus, 
and many others, ^tes refused to surrender the 
fleece until Jason had ploughed a piece of land 
with the fire-breathing bulls and had sown it with 
the teeth of the dragon guarding the fleece. 
Jason successfully accomplished the task, being 
aided by Medea, a sorceress, and daughter of 
^Etes, who anointed his body so that the breath 
of the bulls should not destroy him. She also 
instructed him to throw a stone in the midst of 
the armed men who were springing from the teeth 
of the dragon guarding the fleece. When he did 
this, the armed men fell to killing each other, 
and Medea then lulled the dragon to sleep, 
which enabled Jason to easily slay him, and 
the heroes returned home after many wonderful 
adventures. 

70. The Story of the Trojan War. — The circum- 
stances leading up to the war were the award- 
ing by Paris of the golden apple to Venus and the 
subsequent abduction of Helen, the wife of Mene- 
laus, the king of Sparta. Menelaus, Diomedes, 
Nestor, Odysseus or Ulysses, Achilles, and Aga- 
memnon were the heroes who took part in the 
expedition against Troy, in Asia Minor, the resi- 



GREECE IOI 

dence of Priam. The war lasted for ten years, 
and the city was finally taken by the stratagem 
of the wooden horse. After the fall of Troy the 
Grecian princes and chieftains returned home. It 
is said that the gods who hitherto had been in their 
favour withdrew their support from them because 
of their having destroyed the temples of Troy, and 
their return home was attended by many misad- 
ventures, and in the case of Odysseus was a series 
of sufferings that lasted for ten years spent in 
endeavours to reach his home in Ithaca. The 
wanderings of Odysseus are the subject of the 
Odyssey, the second poem ascribed to Homer, but 
lately claimed to have been written by a different 
author. The thrones of some of the princes had 
during their prolonged absence been usurped, and 
Agamemnon was on his return murdered by his 
wife, Clytemnestra, with the aid of her lover, 
/Egisthus. Penelope, the wife of Odysseus, how- 
ever, remained true to her husband, although he 
had been absent for twenty years, and in spite of 
the presence at his palace of many suitors for her 
hand who were spending his property. Upon his 
return he slew them and was welcomed by his 
wife and subjects. 

71. The Heroic Age. — The heroes are said to 
have lived in the heroic age, i. e., the period pre- 
ceding the truly historic age of the Greeks. They 
were regarded as intermediates between God and 
man, and were distinguished from man by su- 
perior strength, moral courage, and ability. They 



102 ANCIENT HISTORY 

were the subjects of a worship very similar to that 
of the saints of the Christian era and their names 
were principally of local importance. Thus, The- 
seus was essentially the hero of Attica and Ajax 
of Salamis, etc. 

72. Homer's "Iliad." — The Trojan war was im- 
mortalised by Homer, to whom the authorship of 
the Iliad and the Odyssey is accredited. Of his 
personality hardly anything is known and in 
modern criticisms even his very existence is 
doubted. It is asserted that the two poems are 
the composite result of many poets and ages, but 
it can reasonably be supposed that at least a part 
of the Iliad is the work of a single poet of great 
genius. He is said to have lived about 850 B.C. ; 
by some a date as early as 1200 B.C. is given. 
His poems were recited by professional men travel- 
ling from city to city and the present form of 
the poems is said to have been the work of Alex- 
andrine grammarians. Aristarchus is given the 
credit of having done the most to bring out the 
text now in use. 

73. Religion. — All the great religions of the 
world originated in Asia. The religion of the 
Greeks was not worthy of their development in 
other lines. They worshipped many gods whom 
they believed to have their abode on the mountain 
Olympus, on the border of Macedonia and Thes- 
saly. The chief of their deities was Zeus, the god 
of the heavens. His wife and consort was Hera, 
who was also his sister. Others of the gods were : 



GREECE I03 

Poseidon, brother of Zeus and supreme lord of 
the sea; Apollo, god of light, the avenger of 
wrongs, the helper, god of prophecy and music, 
and, in a later conception, representing the life- 
giving influence, the son of Zeus and Leto, a 
daughter of a Titan; Apollo's twin sister was 
Artemis. Ares, the god of war, son of Zeus and 
Hera; Hephaestus, the god of fire; Hermes, the 
god of invention and commerce, a son of Zeus 
and Maia, a daughter of Atlas; Athena, who 
sprang full grown from the head of Zeus, the 
goddess of art and knowledge; Aphrodite, the 
goddess of love and beauty, the daughter of Zeus 
and Dione, a female Titan ; Hestia, the goddess of 
the hearth, daughter of Cronos and Rhea ; De- 
meter, the goddess of vegetation, whose daughter 
Persephone was abducted by Hades. Besides 
these gods, who constituted the Olympian Council, 
the Greeks worshipped a great many lesser deities 
and monsters, either human or divine. 

74. The Olympian Council.- — The Olympian Coun- 
cil consisted of twelve gods and goddesses, as fol- 
lows: Zeus, Poseidon, Apollo, Hephaestus, Ares, 
and Hermes; the goddesses were: Hera, Athena, 
Artemis, Aphrodite, Hestia, and Demeter. 

The gods were consulted through the so-called 
oracles, through which they manifested their 
knowledge of future events. The oracles were 
situated in dark forests and isolated spots and 
the answers, as a rule in hexameter, were given 
out by the priests, for the most part in form so 



104 ANCIENT HISTORY 

ambiguous as to permit the variation of inter- 
pretation in accordance with the denouement 
at hand. 

75. The Oracles. — The chief oracles were those 
of the Pelasgian Zeus at Dodona, and that of 
Apollo at Delphi. At Dodona the rustling of the 
oak leaves was interpreted by priests acquainted 
with the meaning of the mysterious messages. 
The responses of the Delphic oracles were received 
through the lips of a priestess called the Pythia. 
Seated on a tripod over the fissure of the rock 
from which emanated intoxicating gases she soon 
fell in a swoon, and the wild ejaculations in her 
delirium were then taken up by the priests and 
translated into the answers to the inquiries made 
of the oracles. The priests kept themselves well 
informed of all state and social affairs of Greece 
and also of other countries, and busied them- 
selves at all times answering supposititious ques- 
tions and thus acquired great skill which enabled 
them to give intelligent advice in most cases and 
to foretell the natural course of events. How T - 
ever, when it came to actual prophecy, they usu- 
ally preferred to give their answers in such form 
that they could be read both ways, favourable or 
unfavourable. So, for instance, Croesus was told 
that if he crossed the Halys he would destroy a 
great kingdom. But they did not tell him whose 
kingdom, whether his own or that of Cyaxeres, 
and the fate of Croesus did not cast a shadow of 
discredit on the oracle. 



GREECE 105 

76. Classes. — There were three classes : the 
nobles, the common freemen, and the artisans. 
The nobles were citizens in the proper sense of the 
word who had the right to vote. Manual labour 
was not despised by them, and the nobles culti- 
vated their lands with their own hands, while the 
poorer class hired out to them for agricultural 
labours. There were also a great number of 
slaves, barbarians, either taken in battle or pur- 
chased in the slave markets of the East. 

77. The Sacred Games. — The sacred games 
were national festivals in which the predominating 
features were athletic contests. It is not known 
at what period they were instituted, for like most 
Greek customs, they are preserved to our times 
from remote mythical ages. These games were 
held at stated intervals and were four in number : 
the Olympian, the Pythian, the Isthmian, and the 
Nemean. 

Of the four mentioned, the Olympian games 
were the most famous and popular. They were 
held every four years, and take their name from 
the town of Olympia, in Elis. In the first stages 
of development of the games they consisted of 
contests in foot-racing only, and the celebration 
lasted one day. Later the competition was ex- 
tended to other sports, trials of strength being in- 
troduced besides the contests in fleetness. Then 
the duration of the contests was prolonged from 
one to five days and horse- and chariot-races 
were added. 



106 ANCIENT HISTORY 

While at first the games were simply sacrifices 
held near the tombs of the dead, in the belief that 
the shades of the departed delighted in the sight 
of such sports as they were accustomed to during 
their lifetime, later they grew into religious fes- 
tivals and the idea was prevalent that the gods of 
the temple near which the games were held were 
present at the festivals. 

The games were under the management of 
a committee of Eleans, by whom the court of 
judges was appointed. The awards of the victors 
consisted of a simple olive wreath, and they were 
the symbol of the greatest honour a Greek could 
achieve during his lifetime. 

j The families of the victors were ennobled by 
their victory. They were carried in triumphal 
processions to their homes; rewards were voted 
to them by the citizens ; their taxes were remitted, 
and the victors' wreaths were left to their child- 
ren's children as the greatest heritage, more 
precious than worldly goods and riches. 

78. Influence of the Sacred Games. — The in- 
fluence of the sacred games manifested itself in 
multitudinous ways. They had a tendency to 
create a feeling of unity between the Hellenes, 
and although they never formed a common po- 
litical union, the games tended in a great meas- 
ure to impress a common character upon their 
social, intellectual, and religious life. Further- 
more, after contests in literary arts had been 
introduced into all the games, with the exception 



GREECE 107 

of the Olympian, the games even served to stim- 
ulate activity in those branches of art, and no 
doubt many of the noted works of the Greeks can 
be traced directly to the influence of the sacred 
games. Another influence of the games was upon 
trade and commerce, the places where the games 
were held becoming centres of commercial activity 
because of the great number of people assembled 
from all parts of Greece; and finally the games 
can be said to have had a softening effect upon 
the people, it being thought sacrilegious to engage 
in war during the national festivals. 

79. Early Political Organisation. — The Greeks are 
one of the three nations which have shown the 
highest political capacity. 

The primitive government of Greece was a 
monarchy, but it was essentially different from 
the organisation now recognised under that 
appellation, and may more aptly be designated as 
a patriarchal presidency, because the king was not 
a supreme ruler, but rather a chief among the 
nobles, and president of the council, and was king 
by the inherent hereditary right as a descendant 
of the first elder of the people. He was their high 
priest, performed the sacrifices, and led in the 
religious ceremonies, and was also their com- 
mander-in-chief in war, but there his power ended. 
The people served him, not as their master, but 
as their patriarch and chief. 

80. The Council of Elders. — The early monar- 
chies of Greece were groups of communities and 



108 ANCIENT HISTORY 

not cities, like the later republics. The govern- 
ment was administered by a Council of Elders, of 
which the king was president. Affairs of state 
were discussed at feasts, to which the king sum- 
moned the council, and the consideration of pub- 
lic matters was conducted in a way recalling 
Frederick William's famous "Tobacco Parlia- 
ment." 

The legislation decided upon at the meetings of 
the council was made public by the king at an 
assembly of the members of the ancient kinship, 
of which the king was also president. At these 
assemblies the king announced the business in 
hand, the elders, if they chose to do so, addressing 
the people with regard to same, and the assembly 
made known either that it assented, by turbulent 
demonstrations, or, if they did not approve of the 
decrees made public, showed their disagreement 
by a cold silence. There was no vote, however, 
and the decisions of the council were final. 

Justice was administered by the council, the 
king presiding, and each member of the council 
had the privilege of expressing his individual 
opinion, a majority of votes probably deciding the 
case. 

81. The Ancient City. — The ancient city was 
far different from the city denoted by the modern 
term, and even bore very little resemblance to the 
type of the later city, which is represented by 
Athens and Sparta. It was formed by a coming 
together of the tribes, who again were a combina- 



GREECE IOQ 

tion of phratries, consisting of clans. Practically, 
it was the residence of the king and the priests, 
generally situated on a hill offering good advan- 
tages for defence, containing the temples of the 
gods and the market-place, but while the people 
worshipped at the city's temple, attended the 
trading place, and held their armed assemblages 
at the city, they did not live there. 

In the council the clans or gentes were repre- 
sented, and neither the tribes, nor the phratries 
were a unit in the social organisation. The or- 
ganisation of the city was based entirely upon 
religion, which continued to be the motive of 
social order for many centuries, the religious 
heads being acknowledged the rulers of society. 
The meetings of the council were religious as well 
as social, and the council always assembled in a 
temple, so that politics were practically synony- 
mous with religion. 

This social organisation, based upon the family, 
was already preparing for a transformation in the 
heroic age, and the principal change, which made 
the city the main part, while the tribes, gentes, 
and families became its subordinated components, 
whereas in the earlier organisation the city had 
been made important through the connection 
with the families, clans, and tribes, was accom- 
plished gradually and with a rapidity varying in 
different localities. The cause of the change was 
the loss of importance of the individual govern- 
ments by the confederation and the formation of 



HO A NCI EN T HIS TOR Y 

the city, and by a process working through many 
generations, the close structure of the gentes was 
weakened by the influence of the inferior position 
assigned to them in the new organisation. 

The disintegration of the gentes, politically, re- 
sulted in their branches becoming more and more 
independent of each other, and, no longer being 
held together by the stimulus of political import- 
ance, they submitted to the authority of the city, 
which now gained full supremacy over family, 
gens, and tribe, from whom it had derived its 
existence. 

82. Hellas. — The term "Hellas" applied not 
only to Greece, but to all Greek colonies as well, 
scattered upon the islands and shores of the Medi- 
terranean, in Asia Minor, Africa, Italy, Sicily, etc., 
and the Greeks called themselves Hellenes, as in- 
habitants of the Hellas thus denned. 

83. Hellenic Migrations. — The first Hellenic mi- 
gration from Asia Minor into Greece occurred 
in very remote times, and the immigrants, who in 
time became entirely alienated from their former 
kinsmen, were called "Pelasgians. During the 
second epoch some Hellenic tribes passed into 
Greece and mingled with the Pelasgians, some 
migrated to the coast of Asia Minor, and others 
settled in the mountains of Northern Greece. In 
the eleventh century a fierce tribe of mounted 
warriors, afterwards known as Thessalians, de- 
scended into the north-eastern region of Greece, 
under their prince Hellen, from whom the Greeks 



GREECE 1 1 1 

took their name of Hellenes, and subdued or drove 
out the rEolianSj some of whom settled in Bceotia. 
Then the Dorians migrated into the Peloponnesus 
and drove out the Achaians, who retired north- 
ward, and, after expelling the Ionians, settled in 
Achaia, the Ionians seeking refuge in Attica. 
The conquests of the Dorians and Thessalians set 
afoot a movement toward Asia Minor, which thus 
was being resettled by European Greeks, some of 
the displaced Achaians migrating to the north- 
west of Asia Minor, while many of the Ionians, 
after having been driven out of Achaia, settled 
in the central region of the ^Egean coast of Asia 
Minor. Some of the Dorians, also, continued 
their march and left the Peloponnesus, founding 
settlements on Crete and Rhodes. 

84. Colonies. — In the eighth and seventh cent- 
uries b.c, during the age of the tyrants, many 
were driven from their homes, and, settling in 
various localities on the shores of the Mediter- 
ranean, founded the first colonies. The number 
of emigrants was swelled by the Greek love of 
adventure and the overcrowding of population, 
while commerce was also a powerful factor in 
colonisation, which continued until about the 
middle of the sixth century b.c 

The colonies, in their turn, continued the pro- 
cess, so that Greek colonies were scattered upon 
all the shores of the Mediterranean. 

85. Relation of the Colony to the Mother City. — 
Although there was a strong tie of religious 



112 ANCIENT HISTORY 

sentiment and tradition between the colony and 
the mother city, in political respect the former was 
absolutely independent, and the mother city re- 
tained no hold upon her whatever, the colony be- 
coming a separate state as soon as founded. 
Whenever a party of emigrants left the mother 
city, they took with them fire from the Prytaneum, 
to furnish their own altars in the new home, also 
a leader, who was recognised as the founder of 
the colony. Before the start was made, the ad- 
vice of the oracle was sought, and the answer of 
the gods awaited. 

86. Colonial Institutions. — As to the colonial 
institutions, they retained the main features of 
those of the mother city. As most of the men 
who founded the first colonies had left the mother 
cities to escape the tyrannies, and therefore 
longed for constitutional changes, Democracy was 
developed in the colonies much more rapidly than 
in Greece, but, nevertheless, the colonial govern- 
ments had to undergo all the changes that took 
place in Athens, from Timocracy (a certain 
amount of property being required as a qualifica- 
tion for political office) to Democracy, and through 
a period of Tyranny again to Democracy. 

87. Lack of Poltical Unity. — Although the 
political life of the Greeks was lived in many 
separate groups, to some extent they felt them- 
selves bound to each other by a feeling of national 
unity, which was stimulated by the Amphictyonic 
leagues, the sacred games, and the influence of 



GREECE 1 1 3 

religious unity. However, the geographical ob- 
stacles, because of the wide extent of Greek 
territory, and the political habit of separation, 
prevented the establishment of a united national 
government. The spirit of union was strongest 
in religious matters, and the various leagues of 
neighbours, formed for the purpose of maintaining 
and defending the shrines of the gods, adopted 
rules with regard to the conduct of the members 
of the leagues in peace or in war, which, had they 
been developed, would undoubtedly have led to 
national unity, but the influence of these leagues 
upon politics was not strong enough to counter- 
act the disintegrating influence of Greek political 
organisation. The influence of the sacred games, 
at which the Greeks assembled from all parts of 
the Hellenic world, tended to create and foster the 
spirit of nationality, and to impress a national 
character upon the intellectual, moral, and relig- 
ious life of the Greeks, but, although this influ- 
ence was exercised for over one thousand years, it 
failed to create political unity. 

The Delian Confederacy was the closest ap- 
proach to political union ever attained by the 
Greeks, but it was superseded shortly by the 
ascendency of Athens. 

88. Political Growth of Greece. — Greek colonies 
were established in most regions on the Mediter- 
ranean and on the Black Sea. On Sicily were 
Naxos and Syracuse ; in Southern Italy Taren- 
tum, Sybaris, Crotona, and Rhegium; Massalia 



114 A NCI EN T HIS TOR Y 

(Marseilles) was founded by the Ionians about 
600 b.c. ; on the African coast were Cyrene and 
Naucratis; in the Crimea was Panticapaeum, 
afterwards the capital of the Greek kings of the 
Bosporus; on the mouth of the Danube was 
Istria. 

The age of the oligarchies and tyrannies was 
the most active period of Greek colonisation, and 
the foundation of most of the colonies can be 
placed in the two centuries from 750 to 550 b.c. 

Overpopulation can be assigned as one of the 
causes for the emigration of so many Greeks, and 
no doubt many were driven from their homes 
during the rule of the tyrants. 

The Greek colonies were not dependents of their 
parent city, and their relations to it were simply 
those of filial piety. The active and free life led 
by the colonies exercised a stimulating influence 
upon Greece, and many of the poets and philoso- 
phers were natives of either Asiatic or European 
colonies of the Greeks. 

89. Sparta. — In Sparta there were three prin- 
cipal classes of society: 

(1) The Spartans themselves, who formed a 
small, or at least comparatively small, land-owning 
class among a numerous population of (2) The 
Periceci, the subjugated Achaians, who were al- 
lowed to own land but were forced to pay tribute, 
and (3) The Helots, who were slaves in the full 
sense of the word and were owned by the state. 
It is even asserted that when the Helots grew too 



GREECE 1 1 5 

numerous the Spartans resorted to a deliberate 
massacre. They made a public proclamation to 
the effect that to such of the Helots as could prove 
having done some signal service for the Lacedae- 
monians freedom would be granted. About 2000 
claimants were successful and they were liberated 
with impressive ceremonies. Thucydides states 
that all these men were afterwards secretly done 
away with. 

90. Lycurgus. — Lycurgus lived in the ninth cent- 
ury B.C. He spent many of the best years of his 
life in exile in order to familiarise himself with the 
laws and institutions of different nations. He is 
said to have studied the laws of Minos, the legend- 
ary lawgiver of Crete, and to have journeyed as 
far as Egypt and even India in search of informa- 
tion. When he returned to Sparta the prime of 
his life was passed. He was held in great esteem 
because of his wisdom, and the Spartans, not 
without some opposition and trouble, finally ac- 
cepted a set of laws and regulations drawn up by 
him and representing the result of his research. 
After his laws had been introduced he bound the 
Spartans to observe his laws in his absence and 
then set out for Delphi to consult the oracle. In 
response to his question the oracle assured him 
that Sparta would be successful as long as they 
obeyed the laws he had given them. Lycurgus 
caused his answer to be conveyed to the Spartans, 
and in order that they might be bound by the 
oath they had taken, he resolved never to return 



Il6 ANCIENT HISTORY 

and went into voluntary exile. The Spartans 
built temples in his honour and otherwise per- 
petuated his memory. 

91. The Political Ideal of Sparta. — The poli- 
tical ideal of Sparta was the establishment of a 
military supremacy over the Greek states, and 
the constitution framed by Lycurgus was suc- 
cessful in making of the Spartans a nation of 
skilful soldiers. The ideal was a state powerful 
by the subordination of the citizens' faculties 
and capabilities to their effectiveness as soldiers. 
The opinion seems to have been that the citi- 
zen was made for the state, not the state for 
the citizen; and it was forgotten that no body 
of people can be so strong in any other way as 
by making the individuals strong mentally as well 
as physically. 

92. Sparta a Soldier State. — There were two 
kings, but their authority was reduced to a mere 
dignity and to leadership in war. The legislative 
power was given to the senate, consisting of 
twenty-eight members over sixty years old and 
the two kings, whatever their age may have been. 
Besides, every male Spartan over thirty years old 
had the right to vote once a month on the meas- 
ures proposed by the senate or elders (gerontes). 
Gradually the ephors, five in number, absorbed 
the powers of the senate, as well as the authority 
of the two kings. 

The system of government simply contem- 
plated the making of soldiers. After birth the 



GREECE 117 

children were brought before the ephors to be 
inspected with regard to their fitness to live. If 
the child was weak or deformed, it was exposed 
in the hills of Taygetus to die. If strong and 
healthy it was given to the mother for seven years, 
and then its education was taken up by the state. 
This consisted more in the training of the body 
than of the mind, and the principal object was to 
harden the body so as to be inured to exposure 
and pain. At the age of thirty the boy was 
promoted to manhood, was permitted to marry 
and take part in public affairs, but he slept in 
the public barracks and was not released from 
military service until he attained the age of 
sixty. 

One of the most peculiar institutions of the 
Spartans were the public meals. All citizens 
were required to take their meals at public tables, 
fifteen persons being seated at one table, and they 
were required to contribute a certain amount of 
victuals, besides money for the purchase of fish 
and meat. If a citizen failed to pay his contribu- 
tion, he was disgraced and disfranchised. No- 
body except the ephors, not even the kings, was 
excused from sitting at the common meals. 
Money was regarded as a necessary evil. To 
make it as little desirable as possible the coins 
were of iron. With this system the object of 
making the Spartans a race of soldiers was at- 
tained, and their valour and stoicism on the 
battlefield were proverbial, so that, in order to 



1 1 8 A NCIEN T HIS TORY 

defeat them, the only way was to destroy them to 
the last man. 

Spartan institutions were based on the falla- 
cious theory that the people existed for the benefit 
of the state or government instead of the govern- 
ment for the people, and they reversed the theory 
that the body is intended to be the instrument of 
the mind. A consequence of this was the system 
adapted for the education by the state of the 
citizens, so as to make them adapted for the uses 
of the state. 

93. The Messenian Wars. — One of the Spartan 
kings was killed by the Messenians at the temple 
of Artemis, on Mount Taygetus, but his killing 
was plausibly explained by his murderers. A 
short time afterwards Polychares, a wealthy 
Messenian, was robbed of his cattle by a Spartan, 
and his son, whom he had sent for redress, was 
murdered. He applied to the ephors for justice, 
but was turned away. He then issued orders to 
his herdsmen to kill every Spartan they should 
meet. The Spartans marched across the frontier, 
took the fortress of Amphia, and killed the garri- 
son. This was the beginning of the first Mes- 
senian war. For about four years the Messenians 
held their own, but in the fifth they were de- 
feated. They inquired of the oracle at Delphi, 
and were told that the king's daughter would 
have to be sacrificed in order to secure victory. 
The king was about to comply when his daughter 
was killed. The king is stated to have killed him- 



GREECE II9 

self later, and the disheartened Messenians aban- 
doned their fortress, Ithome, which was occupied 
by the Spartans, and the latter quickly overpow- 
ered all opposition and reduced the Messenians 
to servitude. After nearly forty years of servi- 
tude the spirit of the Messenians revived, and un- 
der the leadership of Aristomenes they revolted. 
The Spartans consulted the oracle and were 
advised to send to Athens for a leader. The 
Athenians did not wish to oppose the oracle, and 
they sent to the Spartans a lame poet-school- 
master, Tyrtasus, believing that he would prove 
of little value to the Spartans. However, Tyr- 
taeus at once began to compose martial songs 
which so revived the courage of the Spartans 
that, although they were defeated in the first 
battles against Aristomenes, the Messenians were 
finally conquered and Aristomenes compelled to 
take refuge in flight. Many of the Messenians, 
choosing exile to serfdom, left the country and 
settled in various parts of Italy and Sicily. The 
two Messenian wars lasted from about 750 to 650 

B.C. 

94. Athens. — The situation of Athens was such 
as to enable the people to turn their energies 
toward colonisation and commerce, as their city 
was not far from the -sea, but still sufficiently 
separated from the other Hellenic states by geo- 
graphical boundaries, which isolation fostered the 
spirit of local patriotism, while the sea rendered 
easy friendly intercourse with distant countries 



120 ANCIENT HISTORY 

and the development of commercial enterprise. 
The small strait that separates England from the 
continent can be called a similar medium, being 
a sufficient obstacle to the carrying of war into the 
country, the strait being stormy and dangerous, 
but it was no hindrance to the development of the 
people's commercial talents and colonising ambi- 
tion. The people of England had the advantage 
of their isolation having been such as to prevent 
all interference for long centuries by any of the 
continental powers, and they were thus permitted 
to lead their own life, to develop their resources, 
and to pay more attention to their own political 
affairs. In Athens as well as in England the 
spirit of local freedom was upheld, and their 
situation goes far towards accounting for the 
peculiar institutions of free government. 

As to the people themselves, the Athenians as 
well as the English are not absolutely pure, and 
this mixed origin of the population is believed to 
be the secret of the versatile character of both. 

Athens during the heroic ages was ruled by 
kings, as was the case with most of the Grecian 
cities. The names of Theseus and Codrus are the 
most noted among the kings. Theseus is said to 
have united the different Attic villages into a 
single city on the side of Cecropia, built by Ce- 
crops, one of the oriental immigrants. During 
an invasion of Attica by the Dorians from the 
Peloponnesus, Codrus, king of Athens, learned 
that the Spartans had been informed by an oracle 



GREECE 121 

that they would be successful if they spared the 
life of the king of Athens. He thereupon dis- 
guised himself and with one companion made an 
attack on some Spartan soldiers, and was slain by 
them. When the Spartans discovered that they 
had killed the king, they despaired of being suc- 
cessful, and left the country. Codrus was the 
last hereditary king of Athens. His successor was 
elected from among the nobles for life. After the 
reign of twelve kings, in about 752 B.C., the reign 
of the king was reduced to ten years; the office 
was made open to all nobles, and later the term of 
reign was still further reduced to one year. The 
duties of the kings were assigned to magistrates 
chosen from the nobles by themselves. This led 
to the establishment in the seventh century of a 
board called Archons, which consisted of nine per- 
sons, including the king. Thus practically the gov- 
ernment from a monarchy became an oligarchy, 
or government of the aristocracy. Besides the 
Archons there was in Athens a board called the 
council of the Areopagus, which was composed in 
part, and sometimes entirely, of ex-members of 
the Archons. Solon is believed to have confined 
the membership to ex- Archons. The Areopagus 
was a judiciary council whose duty it was to see 
that the laws were properly enforced and to pun- 
ish transgressions of the laws. The common peo- 
ple were not permitted to take part in any of the 
acts of government, and they were in a bad 
economic condition, one of the principal reasons 



122 ANCIENT HISTORY 

being a law that permitted the creditor of a 
common man to sell him, his wife, and family 
into slavery, if he was unable to discharge his 
debt. 

95. Cylon. — Cylon was the name of a noble who 
put himself at the head of the discontented com- 
mon people in an attempt to overthrow the gov- 
ernment. The insurrection was not successful, 
and the rebels were closely besieged by the Ar- 
chons in the Acropolis, which they had seized. 
Believing that their death by starvation would 
pollute the temple in which they had sought 
refuge, one of the Archons, Megacles, offered them 
their freedom if they would surrender. The in- 
surgents feared to trust themselves to their ene- 
mies without some protection, and they fastened 
a line to the statue of Athena, to which they held 
fast while descending into the streets of Athens. 
Suddenly the line broke, and Megacles ordered 
them to be massacred, declaring that the breaking 
of the line was a sign from the goddess that she 
would shield them no longer. 

After this a long series of calamities befell the 
state, and the people became even more inflamed 
against the nobles because they believed that 
the gods were punishing them for the murder of the 
rebels to whom they had promised freedom. The 
people demanded that the family to which Me- 
gacles belonged be sent into exile, and succeeded. 
Another demand of the people was the publica- 
tion of the laws, to secure them against the unjust 



GREECE 123 

decisions of the aristocrats in whose hands the 
administration of justice was placed. 

96. Draco. — In order to meet the demand of 
the people to have the laws made public, the 
nobles appointed one of their number, Draco, to 
revise the laws and the constitution. Some of 
the changes made by Draco were quite sweeping. 
So, for instance, the magistrates who heretofore 
had been elected by the council of the Areopagus 
were to be elected by the Ecclesia, or popular as- 
sembly. In this body all persons who could pro- 
vide themselves with a full military equipment 
were permitted to vote. Eligibility for the magis- 
tracy was not confined to the nobles, but, a certain 
requirement as to property held by the applicant 
for the position having been complied with, any 
person, even from among the common people, was 
eligible. Besides making these changes in the 
constitution Draco drew up a set of laws. Tradi- 
tion has it that he assigned the punishment of 
death for the smallest offence. Although this, no 
doubt, is exaggerated, the laws were very severe, 
and they were defective inasmuch as they offered 
no relief whatsoever to the poor, the old law as to 
debtors still remaining in effect. 

97. Solon. — A dispute ensued shortly after be- 
tween the two cities of Athens and Megara in re- 
gard to the ownership of the island of Salamis, 
and finally they engaged in war in order to set- 
tle the controversy. Athens was victorious, but 
the cost of the war was heavy and the burden fell 



124 A NCI EN T HIS TOR Y 

mostly upon the poor class, who were put into an 
even more unendurable condition, so that the need 
for some relief was made very urgent. As in the 
time of Draco, the Athenians again placed their 
constitution into the hands of one man for re- 
vision. His name was Solon. Solon. at once made 
the changes necessary to relieve the poor classes, 
and cancelled debts of all kinds, public and pri- 
vate, and enacted a law prohibiting the securing 
of debts on the body of the debtor. 

Solon changed the constitution so as to make 
all the classes eligible to vote in the Ecclesia, to 
which until then only those that could provide 
themselves with armour and equipment had 
been eligible. Under the revised constitution the 
fourth class was entitled to vote with the other 
three, but they were not allowed to hold office. 
The magistrates became responsible to the people, 
who not only elected them, but also judged them 
in case of wrong-doing. 

The council of four hundred and one was also 
reconstructed by Solon, and was to consist of 
four hundred members, one hundred from each 
tribe. 

98. The Tyrant Pisistratus. — Pisistratus usurped 
the government of Athens about 560 B.C. in the 
following manner: After representing himself as 
the champion of the people, one day he inflicted 
wounds on his own body, and appeared in the 
square calling to the people that he had been as- 
saulted by the nobles. He gained the sympathy 



GREECE 125 

of the people, who voted to him a guard of fifty- 
men. Under the pretence of raising this guard he 
enlisted a large force, and after two unsuccessful 
attempts to take the city of Athens he finally 
mastered the situation and installed himself in 
power as tyrant. His rule was mild, and he was 
a great patron of arts and literature. Many new 
buildings were constructed by him, as were the 
aqueducts and parks. He founded the first li- 
brary at Athens, and during his reign (560 to 527 
b.c.) the Homeric poems were collected. 

For Athens the reign of Pisistratus was a period 
of great prosperity. He died in 527 B.C., and his 
two sons, Hippias and Hipparchus, succeeded to 
power. 

99. Clisthenes. — Hipparchus was assassinated 
by a noble whom he had insulted. Hippias es- 
caped bodily harm, but became very suspicious 
and severe, so that his reign was a tyranny in 
fact. 

The family of Megacles, whom Pisistratus had 
sent into a second exile, won the favour of the 
sacred college at the oracle of Delphi by the re- 
building of the temple that had been destroyed 
by fire, and the answers given from this time to 
the Spartans to all their inquiries were to require 
of them the liberation of Athens from the yoke of 
Hippias. The Spartans at last set out on the ex- 
pedition, but were not successful. In a second 
attempt they succeeded in carrying off the child- 
ren of Hippias, and in order to secure their 



126 ANCIENT HISTORY 

release from the hands of the Spartans, Hippias 
agreed to leave the country, which he did in 510 
B.C. The Athenians passed a decree of perpetual 
exile against him and his family. 

In the second attempt to drive Hippias from 
Athens the Spartans were aided by the Alcmaeon- 
idse, the family of Megacles, under the leadership 
of Clisthenes, the son of Megacles. Clisthenes 
developed the constitution of Solon in an even 
more democratic spirit and substituted ten tribes 
for the old four, in order to break up the influence 
of the aristocracy. It is probable that he simply 
added six tribes of the new citizens without dis- 
turbing the four existing tribes. The senate was 
reorganised and made to consist of five hundred 
members, fifty from each of the new tribes. The 
powers of the senate and of the popular assembly 
were greatly increased, and those of the Archons 
and the council of the Areopagus were corre- 
spondingly diminished. 

100. Ostracism. — Ostracism was the power 
of the popular assembly to decree by ballot, 
without process of law, the banishment for ten 
years of any person who had excited the dis- 
pleasure of the people. Six thousand votes, 
written on a shell or piece of pottery, were re- 
quired. 

Ostracism was introduced by Clisthenes in 
order to prevent the recurrence of an usurpation 
similar to that of Pisistratus. However, it does 
not seem absolutely certain that ostracism origi- 



GREECE 127 

nated with Clisthenes. It existed as an institu- 
tion in several other Greek states, and in one form 
or another probably antedates Clisthenes. 

The institution lasted for not quite one century. 
About 417 B.C. the people ostracised a man whom 
all admitted to be the meanest man in all Athens. 
This was believed to have been such an honour to 
the mean man and such a degradation of the in- 
stitution that the measure was abandoned, in 
order to prevent in the future the degradation 
of a good man or the honouring of a bad man by 
means of it. 

101. Struggle between Greece and Persia. — We 
now pass to the story of the great struggle between 
the two great civilisations, the Asiatic and the 
European, between the East and the West. This 
struggle was decided, and through it Greece 
passed into her golden age of Pericles. 

102. Expedition of Darius against Greece. — -In 
about 500 b.c. the Ionian cities in Asia Minor re- 
belled against Darius, the king of Persia, and the 
city of Sardis was burned by them with the aid of 
the Athenians and the Eretrians, from the island 
of Eubcea. Darius decided to punish the offend- 
ers, and sent out a large army and a fleet against 
the Greeks. The fleet was wrecked off Mount 
Athos, and his army was decimated by hordes of 
wild Thracians. Darius at once began the raising 
of a new army, and while his forces were being 
gathered he sent envoys to the various Greek cap- 
itals demanding earth and water as the symbols 



128 ANCIENT HISTORY 

of submission. The smaller states submitted 
and gave the tokens required, but the Spartans 
and Athenians threw the envoys of the Persian 
king into pits and bade them help themselves to 
earth and water. Ten years after the first at- 
tempt the preparations were completed and a 
large army, variously estimated at from 100,000 
to 120,000 men and 600 ships, started from Asia 
Minor, and after capturing the city of Eretria and 
taking many captives the Persians encamped on 
a plain about two days' journey distant from 
Athens. The Persian army, under command of 
the generals Datis and Artap hemes, and guided 
by the exiled tyrant Hippias, was defeated on the 
plain of Marathon by the Athenians and Platasans 
under command of Miltiades, and was forced to 
return to Asia. Darius died three years later, 
having devoted the last years of his life to the 
organisation of a new expedition against the 
Greeks. 

103. The Battle of Marathon. — The army that 
faced the vast numbers of Eastern warriors, gath- 
ered by the Persian king from all parts of his ex- 
tended domains, is estimated at about 10,000, and 
can hardly have amounted to many more, as the 
number of Athenian citizens fit for the field of 
battle never exceeded 30,000. Each of the ten 
tribes had sent a contingent, under command of 
a general, and there also was one Archon, who had 
a voice in the military council and in battle was 
the leader of the right wing. The name of this 



GREECE 129 

Archon was Callimachus. Miltiad.es was the lead- 
ing spirit among the military leaders, and it is due 
to his persuasive powers that the military coun- 
cil, held after the landing of the Persians, decided 
to offer immediate battle instead of awaiting the 
attack, as the more cautious of the generals had 
counselled. When the vote was taken five of the 
generals voted to give battle and five voted against 
it. The deciding vote belonged to the Archon 
Callimachus, and to him Miltiades is said to have 
addressed an eloquent plea in favour of his plan, 
so that Callimachus decided in favour of the 
battle. The generals had such confidence in the 
ability of Miltiades that they gave him their days 
of command in order to enable him to execute 
his preparations, but Miltiades cautiously awaited 
the day when the command would have been his 
in regular order before giving the signal for the 
battle. When on the afternoon of that day the 
Athenians approached the camp of the Persians 
on the run, in a long-drawn-out line of spearsmen, 
the Persians awaited them with a confidence as 
yet unshaken by any defeats, and they believed 
that the Athenians were madmen rushing to cer- 
tain destruction. However, the Persians were 
armed with weapons greatly inferior to the arma- 
ment of the perfectly trained Greeks, and although 
they succeeded in breaking the lines commanded 
by Aristides and Themistocles, whose forces were 
in the centre of the Greek lines, Miltiades led the 
wings against the centre of the Persians after 



130 ANCIENT HISTORY 

putting both Persian wings to flight, and the Per- 
sians were forced to retreat towards the shore, the 
Greeks following them even to the ships and try- 
ing to set the galleys afire. The losses of the 
Persians in this battle numbered over 6000, 
while the Greeks lost only 192 killed. 

The Persians made an attempt to take the town 
of Athens from the sea and sailed around to the 
western coast of Attica, hoping to find some un- 
protected position which would give them access 
to the city, or that perhaps some partisans of 
Hippias might lend them their assistance in the 
attempt. Miltiades was informed of the move- 
ment of the Persian galleys and at once marched 
his army towards the capital, and when the Per- 
sians appeared before Athens and were preparing 
to make an attack upon the city, they were con- 
fronted on the heights before them -by the same 
soldiery that had so successfully opposed them on 
the previous day. The Persians then gave up the 
attempt and sailed away. 

104. The Results of the Battle of Marathon. — The 
battle of Marathon broke the spell of Persian 
invincibility and destroyed the prestige of the 
Persian arms. From the date of this battle 
the Hellenes assumed that position of authority 
among the nations that had for so long been occu- 
pied by the people of the East, and they awoke to 
the knowledge of their own power and resources, 
so that to the battle of Marathon can be ascribed 
the growth of free institutions, the liberal en- 



GREECE 131 

lightenment of the Western world, and the gradual 
ascendancy of European civilisation. 

The battle of Marathon was decisive because it 
can be reckoned among those battles, which, if 
they had had a different termination, would have 
essentially changed the social and political condi- 
tion of not only the two parties engaged in the 
conflict, but of all those who later came under the 
direct or indirect influence of the civilisation of 
the warring parties. It was decisive because it 
marked an epoch, not only in the life of Greece, 
but of all Europe. The battle decided that the 
despotism of the East was debarred from further 
influencing the affairs and ideas of the future and 
paved the way for the enlightened ideas of Western 
freedom with its incentive to personal activity. 

105. Miltiades. — The prominent men of this 
period were Miltiades, Aristides, Themistocles. 

Miltiades, son of Cimon, was at first a Cherson- 
ese prince, the second of the name. (He was of 
course an Athenian.) He was one of the tributary 
rulers who led a contingent of men in the army of 
Darius against Scythia, having been obliged to 
acknowledge the suzerainty of the Persian king. 
He incited the wrath of the Persian king for having 
counselled two other Greek rulers who were with 
the Persians in the Scythian campaign to break 
down the bridge they were left to guard, so as to 
prevent the safe return of the Persian army. He 
was forced to flee from the Chersonese and re- 
turned to Athens to resume his station of a citizen 



132 ANCIENT HISTORY 

of the commonwealth. He was put on trial for 
having been the tyrant of the Chersonese, but on 
account of the service rendered by him in con- 
quering the islands of Lemnos and Imbros for 
Athens the people refused to convict him. Upon 
receipt of information about the Persian invasion, 
Miltiades was elected a general, and he was the 
leader of the Athenians in the battle of Marathon 
to whose genius the victory was mainly due. He 
took advantage of the great confidence the people 
placed in him, and when they had given him per- 
mission to fit out a fleet for an enterprise planned 
by himself, instead of leading the expedition 
against some unprotected city of great wealth in 
Persian domains, as he had led them to believe he 
would do if they granted his request, he attacked 
the island of Paros to avenge a private wrong. 
He was not successful and returned to Athens, 
severely wounded. He was put on trial, and only 
his great achievements saved him from being sen- 
tenced to death. He was fined and died in a 
short time of his wound. 

106. Aristides. — Aristides was a native of Ath- 
ens, of the tribe of Antiochis. He led his own 
tribe in the battle of Marathon as one of the ten 
generals. After the battle he was left by Miltiades 
to collect the spoils on the battlefield, and dis- 
charged this duty with such scrupulous honesty 
that he was surnamed 'the Just." He was made 
an Archon, and his reputation for justice increased 
in such a measure as to excite the jealousy of his 



GREECE 133 

rival, Themistocles, who finally created a strong 
feeling against him by representing that it was 
dangerous for the democracy to permit an indi- 
vidual to gain such influence as that of Aristides. 
Thereupon he was ostracised by the Athenians in 
about 480 b.c. After a few years the sentence of 
exile was revoked, and he took part in the cam- 
paign against Mardonius as one of the Athenian 
generals. When the allied Greeks threw off the 
hegemony of the Spartans, to Aristides was as- 
signed the task of drawing up the laws for the 
confederacy of Delos. He died in about 468 b.c. 
107. Themistocles. — Themistocles, another gen- 
eral at the battle of Marathon, was a far-seeing 
and ambitious statesman. Upon his prompting, 
the Athenians enlarged their navy after the battle 
and prepared themselves for the struggle which 
Themistocles had been wise enough to foresee, 
although many among the Athenians believed 
that the battle of Marathon had for ever freed 
them from Persian interference. Themistocles 
was called the founder of New Athens, and he 
well deserved that title for his remarkable achieve- 
ments, but there were many bad traits in his 
character, and he is said to have accepted bribes 
and to have sold his influence. With the acquir- 
ing of an enormous property he became boastful 
and ostentatious, and the Athenians sent him into 
exile, ostracising him about 470 b.c He found 
refuge at the Court of Artaxerxes, the son of 
Xerxes, and died about 450 b.c. 



134 ANCIENT HISTORY 

1 08. Invasion of Greece by Xerxes. — Greece was 
next invaded by Xerxes, son of Darius and his 
successor to the Persian throne. 

Darius had been preparing for a new campaign 
against the Greeks, but a revolt in Egypt diverted 
the blow aimed at Greece, and before the revolt 
was crushed his reign was ended by his death. 
Xerxes, his son and successor, was a man of an 
entirely different character, and would have pre- 
ferred an easy and inactive life to the hardships 
and the discipline of the camp, but he was stead- 
ily spurred on by his nobles and the Greek exiles, 
who urged him to avenge the defeat of his father 
He finally yielded and decided to prepare for an- 
other expedition, which was to excel all previous 
attempts in magnitude. 

News of the preparations of the Persian king 
were continually reaching Greece, and upon the 
suggestion of Themistocles a congress was called 
into session at Corinth in 481 B.C., in order to 
form a confederation of all the Greeks to resist 
the invaders. However, many cities failed to re- 
spond to the call of the Athenians and refused to 
participate in the movement. The reasons for this 
were many-sided. The states with aristocratic gov- 
ernments were jealous of the democratic states, 
and they held aloof for party reasons, some 
going even so far as to claim that submission 
to the Persians would not be disgraceful because 
they were descendants of Perseus and therefore 
pure Hellenes. They were ready to betray their 



GREECE 135 

country for the sake of party strife, knowing that 
a victory of the Persians would make impos- 
sible the democratic government of the rival 
states. Argos refused to join the federation be- 
cause of hatred of the Spartans ; Thebes, because 
of jealousy of Athens ; the Cretans flatly refused 
all aid; the Corcyreans promised assistance, but 
were not sincere ; and Gelon, the ruler of Syracuse, 
demanded that he be given supreme command 
of the combined forces as a reward for the help 
offered. This the Athenians would not agree to. 
Thus it happened that only about fifteen or six- 
teen states agreed to unite their forces. Themis - 
tocles persuaded them to lay aside all party strife, 
and they bound themselves to enter on a cam- 
paign against such cities as should give aid to the 
Persians as soon as the war against the invaders 
was over, and to dedicate one-tenth of the spoils 
to the shrine of the Delphian Apollo. It was de- 
cided at the convention that the first stand 
against the Persians should be made at Ther- 
mopylae , a narrow pass from Thessaly to Locris, 
through which passed the only road from North- 
ern to Southern Greece. Although the Athenians 
could have demanded the supreme command of 
the combined forces, they agreed to give the chief 
command to the Spartans in order to preserve 
harmony. 

The preparations of Xerxes were designed on a 
large scale. He ordered contributions from all 
his states, some of which were directed to furnish 



136 ANCIENT HISTORY 

horses, others armament, others grain, money, etc 
Ships were built, in order to carry the implements 
of war, supplies, and stores, while the army was 
to march overland. It was the plan of Xerxes to 
have the fleet accompany the troops by sailing 
close to the shore. In order to avoid the dangerous 
Mount Athos, where during Darius's reign a large 
Persian fleet had been destroyed, Xerxes decided 
to cut a canal across the isthmus. Grain-houses 
were built all along his route, and stores were sent 
out ahead of the expedition and left in the store- 
houses, with a force of men to guard them. Al- 
though a considerable part of these preparations 
were on European soil, the Greeks offered no in- 
terference. All preparations having been finished 
and the vast army assembled, Xerxes started out 
for Sardis, established there his headquarters, and 
awaited the coming of spring before he ordered 
the advance. 

In the meantime the bridge across the Helles- 
pont had been finished, but a wintry tempest car- 
ried it away. Xerxes, in great rage, ordered the 
builders of the bridge to be beheaded and the sea 
to be scourged. He then designated a new corps 
of architects and ordered them to build a second 
bridge. Knowing that upon the successful ac- 
complishment of their task depended their lives, 
the builders took every precaution to render the 
bridge safe, and they succeeded in putting up a 
substantial and firm structure. Xerxes then led 
his soldiery from Sardis to the Hellespont and, 



GREECE 137 

after crossing the bridge with impressive cere- 
monies, began his march toward the Greek fron- 
tier. At Doriscus he held a review, the purpose 
being a census of his army. In order to count the 
vast hordes that constituted his army, ten thou- 
sand men were assembled in a close formation, 
then a low stone wall was built around the space 
occupied by them and into this inclosure new 
troops were marched until it was rilled, each rilling 
of the walled space being counted as ten thousand 
men. The inclosure was filled one hundred and 
seventy times, which would put the infantry of 
the army at one million and seven hundred thou- 
sand men. Besides, there was a cavalry force of 
about eighty thousand, a corps of Arabs on 
camels, and another of Egyptians, in war chariots, 
amounting together to about twenty thousand. 
In the fleet there were five hundred thousand men. 
As Xerxes compelled the rulers of the countries 
through which he marched to furnish additional 
enforcements, and as the attendants and slaves are 
not included in the above figures, taken from 
Herodotus, the force of Xerxes, when near the 
Greek frontier, has been put at five or six millions, 
though no doubt these figures are great exaggera- 
tions. It is believed that the actual numbers of 
the Persian army could not have exceeded nine 
hundred thousand men. 

After leaving his capital, Susa, Xerxes marched 
to Sardis, in Lydia, then through Phrygia, across 
the Hellespont, into Thracia, along the shore and 



138 ANCIENT HISTORY 

across the river Strymon into Macedonia, round- 
ing the Thermaic Gulf, then southward, following 
close to the shore, into Thessalia, Thebes, through 
the pass of Thermopylae, defended by Leonidas, 
through Bceotia into Attica and Athens. 

109. The Defence of Thermopylae. — Leonidas, the 
King of Sparta, with about six thousand men from 
different states of Greece, held the pass of Ther- 
mopylae. The Greeks were about to celebrate the 
Olympian games, and they left this small force to 
guard the pass until the festivities were over. 
Xerxes intended to send his fleet to effect a land- 
ing in the rear of the force guarding the pass, but 
a fierce storm destroyed many of his ships, and 
the fleet of the Greeks, which took their position 
at Artemisium, prevented the execution of his plan. 

Xerxes was loth to believe that the small force 
in the pass would give battle, and waited a few 
days expecting them to surrender. Finally he sent 
messengers to demand the surrender of the arms 
and received the answer, " Come and take them! " 

He then ordered his army to advance, but their 
efforts were in vain. Troops after troops were 
hurled back, until the ' ' immortals " were ordered to 
carry the pass. But their spears were shorter 
than those of the Greeks, and the tunics of linen, 
which they wore, were of little use in a conflict 
with men wearing iron armaments. Besides, 
their great numbers were actually a hindrance 
in the narrow pass. The Spartans often pre- 
tended to fly and drew the Persians on. Then 



GREECE 1 39 

they suddenly turned and mercilessly cut them 
down. The next day Xerxes renewed the battle, 
thinking that the Greeks must be too tired to 
right. However, he found them again in battle 
array, only a part of the Phocian force having 
been sent to guard a path over a ridge. Again 
the Persians were unsuccessful. Xerxes was very 
near at his wit's end when Ephialtes, the traitor, 
who told him of the path leading over the mount- 
ains, offered to lead his men into the rear of the 
defenders of the pass. A force of Persians, under 
Hydarnes, started out in the evening and marched 
all night over the mountains, reaching the position 
in the rear of the Greeks by dawn of the fol- 
lowing day. When the Spartans heard that Hy- 
darnes was at their rear they were not surprised, 
as they had been told by their seer Megistias on 
the day before that on the morrow they must die. 
In the allies, however, the news created terror, 
and Leonidas decided to send them all away. 
When the sun rose, Xerxes poured out wine to the 
gods and waited with the signal for the battle 
until about 9 a.m. Then the Persians renewed 
the attack, and the slaughter was fearful on their 
side, many being drowned in the sea and many 
others trampled down alive by one another. 
Finally the Spartans were overborne by sheer 
weight of numbers, and they fell back into the 
narrow part of the pass after Leonidas had been 
killed. Hydarnes then came up from the rear and, 
after performing prodigies of valour, the Spartans 



140 ANCIENT HISTORY 

and Thespians were cut down to a man. They 
were buried where they fell, and over their bodies 
later a monument was erected with this legend: 
" Stranger, tell the Lacedaemonians that we lie 
here in obedience to their bidding." 

no. The Battle of Salamis. — While Leonidas 
was defending the pass of Thermopylae a Greek 
fleet assembled at Artemisium, opposite the Per- 
sian fleet. The Persians decided to send part of 
their fleet around Euboea, in order to place the 
Greeks between two fires, but the fleet was 
wrecked in a storm. The Greeks then attacked 
the enemy and fought them for some days without 
decisive results. Soon the news reached them 
that the pass of Thermopylae was in the hands of 
the invaders, and they decided to retire into the 
Gulf of Salamis, near Athens. The Athenians re- 
moved their households to the ships and Athens 
was left open to the enemy, as a result of an 
oracle that "wooden walls only shall remain tan- 
conquered," and Xerxes entered Athens, after des- 
olating the country, and burned and destroyed the 
temples. At this period Xerxes was the nearest 
to the successful accomplishment of his plans, 
as the Greeks were very much disheartened and 
depressed. Themistocles, in order to prevent a 
dissolving of the fleet, resorted to a stratagem and 
sent a message to Xerxes advising him to attack 
the Greeks upon receipt of the message, as they 
were on the point of running away. Xerxes 
ordered the attack, and viewed the fight from a 



GREECE 141 

lofty throne constructed for him on the shore. 
The battle of Salamis, fought in 480 B.C., ended 
with the defeat of the Persians, and destroyed the 
confidence of Xerxes as to the success of his plans. 
He retreated to Asia and left Mardonius in com- 
mand of an army of three hundred thousand men, 
with which Mardonius had promised to finish the 
conquest of Greece. In the following year, in 
479 B.C., both the army and fleet left behind by 
Xerxes were entirely destroyed in the battles of 
Plataea and Mycale, and of two hundred and fifty- 
thousand Persians not five thousand are said to 
have escaped alive, while the Greek- losses were 
very small. 

in. The Confederacy of Delos. — Hitherto Sparta 
had been looked upon as the leader of Greece, 
but on account of the arrogance of the Spar- 
tan general, Pausanias, the leader of the Greeks 
in the battle of Plataea, the states north of the 
Isthmus of Corinth, the Ionian states of Asia 
Minor, and the islands of the .^Egean formed the 
so-called Confederacy of Delos, in order to join 
their forces against the Persians, who, even after 
the unsuccessful invasion of Xerxes, were harass- 
ing and vexing the Greek possessions. Athens as- 
sumed the position of leader in this confederacy, 
and Aristides was elected the first president of the 
league. As the states on the Peloponnesus still 
regarded Sparta as their leader, Greece was di- 
vided into two leagues, under the rival leadership 
of Athens and Sparta. 



I42 A NCI EN T HIS TOR Y 

The outgrowth of the Confederacy of Delos was 
the Athenian Empire. The Athenians misused 
their authority as leaders in the league, and, as the 
matter of assessments to be paid by the different 
members of the confederacy was left to them, 
they imposed heavy contributions upon them, to 
be paid in ships, their crews, and money. Some 
of the states preferred to pay their contributions 
in money instead of in ships, and this proposition 
was eagerly accepted by the Athenians, who built 
the ships themselves and added them to their 
own navy, thus increasing their own power. The 
assessments in time became oppressive, and 
when some of the states refused to pay, they 
were attacked by the Athenians and lost their 
independence. 

112. Cimon. — Cimon was a great military and 
political leader of Athens. He was the son of 
Miltiades, and became very popular in Athens on 
account of his successes as leader of the forces 
sent against the Persians to wrest from them the 
islands in the JEgean and the Greek cities on the 
coast of Asia Minor. He defeated the Persians at 
Eurymedon in 466 B.C. and reduced Thasos in 463. 
During the revolt of the Helots he advised the 
Athenians to send a military detachment to aid 
the Spartans to suppress the revolution, but the 
Spartans became distrustful of their allies and 
dismissed the Athenians. Cimon lost his popu- 
larity for having given the advice of aiding the 
Spartans, and was ostracised in 459 b.c 



GREECE I43 

113. The Age of Pericles. — During the age of 
Pericles, 459 to 431 b.c, Athens attained her 
greatest height of brilliancy. The influence of 
this period, of the duration of less than one single 
generation, upon the civilisation of the world can 
hardly be estimated. Athens during this period 
was pre-eminently democratic. Various reforms 
were instituted, among others, the powers of the 
Areopagus were transferred to the Dicasteries, 
courts composed of five hundred citizens, thus 
transforming the most important functions from 
aristocratic to democratic. The Senate of five 
hundred was also deprived of most of its judicial 
powers. The people of Athens enjoyed perfect 
political liberty, and as they had a thorough 
knowledge of public affairs they were well able to 
direct the policy of the state. It is stated that 
during the age of Pericles almost every citizen 
was qualified to hold public office. 

The famous men of the age of Pericles were : 
Pericles, Ephialtes, Phidias, Polycletus, Praxiteles, 
Polygnotus, Sophocles, Euripides, Herodotus, 
Thucydides, Antiphon, Lysias, Callicrates, Icti- 
nus, Mnesicles, Aristophanes, Xenophon, Zeuxis, 
Apelles, Parrhasius, Tithmanes, Anaxagoras, 
Democritus, Socrates, and Plato. 

Pericles, a great statesman and orator, the son 
of Xanthippus, was born in 495 b.c. and died in 
429 b.c. at Athens. Ephialtes was a statesman 
and general. He was the author of the lavi 
abridging the power of the Areopagus. Phidias, 



144 ANCIENT HISTORY 

the sculptor, was the son of Charmides. His 
greatest works were the statue of Zeus at Elis 
and the statue of Athene in the Parthenon. Poly- 
cletus was a sculptor of Argos. Praxiteles was 
the sculptor of the statue of Hermes and Diony- 
sos. His most celebrated work was the Aphro- 
dite of Cnidus. Polygnotus was a famous painter. 
Sophocles, ^Eschylus, and Euripides were the 
three most famous tragic poets of Greece. He- 
rodotus, the so-called father of history, wrote a 
history of the Persian invasion in nine books. 
Thucydides, another historian, wrote the history 
of the Peloponnesian War, but did not finish it, 
his history ending 411 B.C., seven years before the 
finish of the war. Antiphon was an orator and 
politician, the oldest of the "ten Attic orators." 
Ictinus, an architect, was the designer of the Par- 
thenon. Mnesicles built the Propylsea, the monu- 
mental gateway to the Acropolis. Aristophanes 
was the greatest of the Greek comic poets. Xeno- 
phon was a celebrated essayist, a disciple of 
Socrates. Zeuxis, Apelles, Parrhasius, and Tith- 
manes were painters ; Anaxagoras, Democritus, 
Socrates, and Plato were philosophers. 

Strictly speaking, several of these men do not 
come within the dates assigned to Pericles, 45 9- 
431 B.C., but they belonged to the period called 
the Age of Pericles, which is not very definitely 
fixed, but extends for a considerable time before 
and after Pericles was in public life. 

114. Alexander and the Decline of Greece. — We 



GREECE I45 

now approach a period of internal dissensions 
in Greece, the rise of Alexander, and the subse- 
quent decline of Grecian supremacy. 

Neither Sparta nor Athens — the leaders in 
Greece — was building toward proper ideals, hence 
neither could lead Greece to permanent greatness. 
There was wanting in the Greeks a certain religious 
element of character that tends to solidity and 
permanence of political institutions. And so the 
Greeks finally gave place to the Romans, who 
possessed this element to a greater degree. 

The growing jealousy between Athens and 
Sparta eventually ended in open war, the so-called 
Peloponnesian War, which lasted, from 431-404 

B.C. 

115. Internal Wars. — Pericles had foreseen the 
conflict, and his later policy was to prepare 
Athens for the struggle. The immediate cause of 
the war was the interference of Athens in a quar- 
rel between the Corcyreans and Corinth, and the 
blockading by an Athenian fleet of Potidaea in 
Macedonia. Corinth appealed to Sparta, as to the 
head of the Dorian alliance, for aid and justice, 
and after listening to both sides the Spartans de- 
cided that the Athenians had been guilty of an 
injustice, and declared war. The decision of the 
Spartans was concurred in by the other members 
of the Peloponnesian Confederation, and upon 
interrogating the oracle they were told that they 
would be victorious "if they fought with all their 
might." 



I46 ANCIENT HISTORY 

The leading contestants were Sparta and 
Athens. 

Athens commanded the resources of her sub- 
ject cities, numbering about three hundred, the 
colonies on the shores of Macedonia and Thrace, 
besides having the assistance of her independent 
allies, namely, the islands of Chios, Lesbos, Cor- 
cyra, and other states. The chief strength of 
Athens lay in her navy. 

With Sparta were allied nearly all the states of 
the Peloponnesus, excepting Argos and Achaia, 
besides Megara, Phocis, and Locris, the Boeotian 
League, headed by Thebes. The Spartans with 
their allies could raise an army of sixty thousand 
men and a large naval contingent, Corinth being 
especially strong in ships. 

Three hundred Thebans gained access at night 
to the city of Platsea, which had refused to join 
the Boeotian League against the Athenians, and, 
after summoning the people, demanded that they 
renounce the alliance with Athens and put them- 
selves on the side of the Spartans. The people 
were about to submit to the demands of the The- 
bans when they discovered the small number of 
the enemy, and they attacked them and took one 
hundred and eighty of them prisoners, who were 
put to death. The Thebans maintained always 
that the Plataeans murdered these prisoners in 
violation of a promise that they would spare their 
lives. This affray precipitated the war. 

116. The Attic War. — The first period of the 



GREECE 147 

war, from 431 to 421 B.C., is usually called the 
Attic War, because of the frequent invasions of 
Attica by the Peloponnesians. Shortly after the 
affair at Plataea the Spartans invaded Attica, 
while an Athenian fleet was ravaging the coast of 
the Peloponnesus. Upon advice of Pericles the 
country people of Attica left their villas and vil- 
lages and sought refuge in the city of Athens, and 
from the walls of the city they witnessed the 
burning of their homes. Pericles did not deem it 
advisable to give battle in the open field, and it 
required all his powers of persuasion to restrain 
the country people from engaging the enemy in 
order to avenge the burning of the villages. In 
the following year the Spartans again invaded 
Attica, and such property as had escaped destruc- 
tion the year before was now mercilessly con- 
signed to the flames. To add to the horrors of 
the war, pestilence broke out in Athens, and prob- 
ably one-fourth of the fighting force of Athens 
succumbed to the plague, including Pericles, who 
had been the mainstay of Athens during these 
times of trials and hardships. He died in 429 
b.c, and his dying words were that he " had never 
been the cause of an Athenian putting on mourn- 
ing." After the death of Pericles, Cleon, an un- 
principled demagogue, came forward as the leader 
of the democratic party, and the mob element 
got control of the Assembly. 

117. Character of the War. — The war was 
waged on both sides with the utmost cruelty and 



I48 ANCIENT HISTORY 

vindictiveness. While the Spartans were ravag- 
ing the Attic villages and vineyards, the Athenian 
fleet was making reprisals on the coasts of the 
Peloponnesus. In 428 the city of Mytilene, on 
the island of Lesbos, revolted, and the Athenians 
sent a force there to subdue the rebellion. After 
the place was captured, the fate of its inhabitants 
lay in the hands of the popular Assembly of 
Athens, and upon the proposal of Cleon it was 
decided to slay all the men of the city, numbering 
about six thousand, and to sell the women and 
children into slavery. A ship was sent to carry 
to the Athenian general the sentence for execu- 
tion. After the ship had sailed, the Athenians 
repented their cruel resolution, and in a second 
meeting of the Assembly repealed the sentence, 
substituting one less harsh but still very severe, 
A second trireme was sent in pursuit of the first 
and succeeded in reaching the island in time to 
prevent the execution of jthe first barbaric sen- 
tence. Still, over one thousand of the nobles of 
Mytilene were slain, the town was destroyed, and 
the lands were divided among Athenian citizens. 
The Spartans were equally cruel. In the same 
year that Mytilene was destroyed by the Athen- 
ians, the Spartans and their allies captured the 
city of Platasa. All the men were put to death, 
the women and children were sold as slaves, and 
the city was razed. 

118. Events Leading to the Peace of Nicias. — The 
events that occurred after the fall of Mytilene 



GREECE 149 

and Plataea showed how completely Athens was 
controlled by unprincipled politicians. Pylos, in 
the south-western part of Messenia, was taken by 
an Athenian general, Demosthenes, and fortified. 
The Spartans attempted to dislodge the Athen- 
ians, and in the course of the siege four hundred 
Spartans were cut off from the mainland on the 
island of Sphacteria, south of Pylos, by the arrival 
of an Athenian fleet. Among them were the 
members of some of the first Spartan families, 
including the general, Brasidas. The Spartans 
sent commissioners to Athens to sue for peace, in 
order to secure the release of the prisoners on the 
island, and offered terms which Athens should 
have accepted. However, Cleon persuaded the 
Assembly to reject the offer of the Spartan emis- 
saries and to demand such terms as he well knew 
the Spartans would not accept. The Spartans 
thereupon returned to Sparta and the negotiations 
were broken off. Demosthenes did not succeed 
in capturing the Spartans on the island, and had 
to send to Athens for reinforcements. Cleon, who 
was in command of the additional force sent, suc- 
ceeded in capturing them and brought about 
three hundred of their number as prisoners into 
Athens. From this on, affairs turned out differ- 
ently for the Athenians. Disregarding the advice 
of Pericles not to aim at power on the mainland, 
they invaded Bceotia and were defeated at Delium 
(424 B.C.). The noble-minded and skilful Spartan 
general, Brasidas, then succeeded in inciting some 



150 ANCIENT HISTORY 

of the Thracian allies of Athens to revolt, and 
they captured the important town of Amphipolis. 
Cleon was sent with an expedition against the 
rebellious towns and was defeated and killed in 
the fighting that followed; and Brasidas, the 
Spartan general, was also mortally wounded in 
action. After the death of Cleon, the patriotic 
and mild-tempered Nicias, an Athenian general, 
brought about the so-called Peace of Nicias in 
421 b.c. This was to have been a fifty-years' 
truce, but it was imperfectly observed for only 
six years, when the contest was renewed. 

119. Alcibiades. — The most prominent man on 
the Athenian side during this period of the 
struggle was Alcibiades, a man of most brilliant 
talents, versatile, licentious, unscrupulous, and 
most charming in manner and speech, but a reck- 
less and unsafe counsellor. 

He was a pupil of the philosopher Socrates, who 
vainly tried to teach him sound morality. He 
gained a large influence over the people, and his 
popularity was such that he was able to carry 
almost any measure through the popular assem- 
bly, although the more prudent of the Athenians 
were filled with apprehension for the future of the 
state under his guidance. Timon, the noted mis- 
anthrope, gave expression to this feeling of ap- 
prehension when he said to him, after the passage 
of one of his impolitic measures, " Go on, and pros- 
per ; for your prosperity will be the ruin of all this 
crowd. ' ' His words became true very shortly after. 



GREECE I 5 I 

The reckless and enterprising democracy, in- 
spired by Alcibiades, disregarded the warnings of 
the cautious Nicias, and aimed at the conquest of 
the western world by the extension of her suprem- 
acy over Sicily. The plans of Alcibiades were 
vast in their conception. The conquest of Sicily 
was to be followed up by the subjugation of Italy 
and Carthage, and then the Peloponnesus and the 
Greek mainland were to be overwhelmed. After 
this was accomplished, the conquering of the de- 
caying Persian Empire would be an easy task. A 
large armament of ships and men was sent out by 
Athens against Sicily, under command of Alci- 
biades, Nicias, and Lamachus. 

The enterprise was doomed to failure from 
the beginning. Instead of attacking Syracuse 
promptly, as Lamachus advised, the generals 
wasted much time in going about seeking allies 
among the Sicilian towns. Alcibiades, who per- 
haps would have proved the man to bring the 
affair to a successful conclusion, was recalled to 
Athens on a trumped-up charge of impiety. He 
was too wise to trust himself to the mercies of a 
political foe and escaped to Sparta, where he exer- 
cised his influence toward the renewal of the war 
against his native state, and, in a fatal desire for 
revenge, advised the Spartans to send a compe- 
tent general to take charge of affairs at Syracuse. 
His advice proved fatal for Athens, as the Athen- 
ian forces before Syracuse were defeated by the 
Spartan general, Gylippus, whom the Spartans 



152 A NCI EN T HIS TOR V 

had sent out in accord with the advice of Alci- 
biades. In 412 his death was decided upon by 
the Spartans, but he escaped in time to the Per- 
sians. In about 411 b.c. he was recalled to 
Athens and put in command of the army, and 
gained some splendid victories for Athens over the 
Peloponnesians and Persians. However, he was 
unable to undo all the evil he had done. He was 
defeated at Andros, and after having been de- 
posed from his command fled into Phrygia, where 
he was treacherously put to death. 

120. The Fall of Athens. — After the defeat and 
total extermination of the expedition Athens had 
sent against Sicily, her resources were hopelessly 
crippled. One by one the allies were falling away 
with the willing aid of Sparta and Persia, and al- 
though efforts were made to retrieve the lost for- 
tunes, internal dissensions and quarrels made 
success impossible, and slowly Athens was near- 
ing her doom. The battle of /Egospotami, on the 
Hellespont, where the entire Athenian fleet was 
destroyed by the Spartans under Lysander (405 
b.c), sealed the fate of Athens. The Pelopon- 
nesians besieged Athens by sea and by land, and 
the city was soon forced to capitulate. Sparta 
thus became supreme in power. 

121. Results of the War. — The effect of the war 
upon the intellectual and moral life of the Greeks 
was lamentable. The morality of the Grecian 
world had sunk many degrees, and the produc- 
tiveness of Greece in art and literature was hope- 



GREECE 153 

lessly impaired. Although the century following 
the Peloponnesian War witnessed many achieve- 
ments in the field of art and literature, especially 
in philosophy, it can only be conjectured what the 
results would have been if their power had not 
been checked by the consequence of the fratri- 
cidal war. 

122. Xenophon. — Xenophon was an Athenian 
general, historian, and essayist. He was bom at 
Athens about 430 B.C., and died after 357 b.c. He 
joined the expedition of Cyrus against Artaxerxes. 
After the defeat at Cunaxa and the treacherous 
murder of the Greek generals, Xenophon was 
made the leader of the Greek forces, numbering 
about ten thousand, and successfully accom- 
plished the most memorable retreat in history. 
Later he entered the service of the Spartans and 
fought on the side of the Spartans at Coronea in 
394 b.c, was banished from Athens, and is said 
to have died in Corinth. 

Xenophon's best-known work, the Anabasis, in 
seven books, treats of the campaign of Cyrus the 
Younger against Artaxerxes II. of Persia, and of 
the retreat of the ten thousand Greeks, 401-399 
b.c, after the death of Cyrus and the murder of 
the Greek generals. The title means "the march 
up," and should apply only to the first part, as 
far as the battle of Cunaxa. The remaining part 
of the work ought to be called Catabasis, "the 
march down " (to the sea). 

123. Philip of Macedon — P hilip II. of Mace- 



154 ANCIENT HISTORY 

don, King of Macedonia, was the son of Amyntos 
II., and the father of Alexander the Great. He 
was born in 382 b.c, and died at the hands of 
assassins at ALgaz in 336 B.C. 

In his youth he had been a hostage for some 
years at Thebes, and learned valuable military 
lessons from that famous general and statesman. 
He organized a professional standing army and 
introduced the so-called "phalanx," heavy-armed 
infantry, carrying swords, shields, and long spears. 
Philip quickly extended his power over the Greek 
cities of Chalcidice, captured Amphipolis in 358 
b.c, Potidsea in 356, founded the well-known 
city of Philippi in 356, and took the city of Olyn- 
thus in 348, destroyed it, and sold the inhabitants 
into slavery. He took part in the sacred war 
against the Phocians, who had deliberately robbed 
the temple of the Delphian Apollo, and the place 
in the Amphictyonic council occupied by the 
Phocians was given to Philip. After having de- 
feated the Thebans and Athenians at Chasronea, 
in 338 b.c, Philip extended his power and author- 
ity throughout Greece. 

Later, Philip was chosen leader of an expedi- 
tion planned by the Greeks against the Persians. 
The march of the ten thousand Greeks through 
the heart of Persia made the undertaking appear 
very feasible. He was assassinated during the 
festivities attending the marriage of his daughter, 
and his son succeeded him in power. 

Demosthenes was one of the few Athenians who 



GREECE 155 

understood the real designs of Philip, and he 
strove, with all the eloquence at his disposal, to 
stir the Athenians to resist the plans of the Mace- 
donian king. He is famous for the Philippics, a 
group of nine orations directed against Philip of 
Macedon. 

124. Alexander the Great. — Alexander the Great 
was born in 356 b.c. and died of fever in 
323 b.c. Alexander was twenty years old when 
he succeeded to the Macedonian throne. In the 
first two years of his reign he subdued various 
barbarous nations, the Getae, Illyrians, and others 
to the north and west of Macedonia. He pun- 
ished a revolt of Thebes by the destruction of the 
city. In 334 b.c. he invaded Asia, defeating the 
Persians under Memnon at the river Granicus. 
In 1^ b.c Alexander routed an enormous army 
Led against him by King Darius III., near Issus, on 
the borders of Cilicia and Syria. He then con- 
quered Syria, Phoenicia, and Palestine, besieged 
and took Tyre in 332 b.c Egypt was then en- 
tered by his victorious army without opposition, 
and the city of Alexandria was founded by Alex- 
ander the Great in 332 b.c He returned through 
Palestine, Syria, Mesopotamia, and the final and 
decisive victory was won at Arbela. In 330 he 
traversed Parthia, founding many new cities on 
the way, and in two years reached India, where, 
in 327, he defeated Porus, an Indian king, in the 
Punjab. He continued on his march towards the 
East until his soldiery refused to accompany him 



156 ANCIENT HISTORY 

farther. In 326 B.C., a fleet constructed for 
the purpose took his army down the Indus to the 
ocean. The army then marched through the 
desert of Gedrosia (Beloochistan), and in 325 
b.c. Alexander again reached Susa, the capi- 
tal of Persia. He then made known his great 
plans for the founding of a Macedonian-Persian, 
universal empire, in which the Eastern and West- 
ern populations should be on an even political 
footing. The execution of his magnificent plan of 
civilisation was cut short by his death of fever at 
Babylon in 323 b.c, at thirty -two years of age, 
after he had in twelve years entirely changed the 
current of history. 

125. The Successors of Alexander. — Alexander 
the Great left no inheritor either of his power or 
his projects. When asked on his death-bed to 
whom he left the empire, he replied, " To the 
strongest." But there was none strong enough, 
and his general, Perdiccas, to whom he is said to 
have given his signet ring, could not master the 
difficulties of the situation. 

In consequence the vast empire broke into frag- 
ments soon after his death, and his schemes of 
conquest were buried in his grave, although the 
effects of his career remained to all time. Out 
of the ruins of his empire rose four monarchies : 
Thrace, Syria, the kingdom of the Ptolemies, and 
Macedonia and Greece, besides a number of smaller 
states, of which only Rhodes and Pontus deserve 
mention. 



GREECE 157 

One of the four monarchies mentioned, that of 
Thrace, ruled by Lysimachus, soon disappeared. 
Lysimachus was defeated by the King of Syria, 
Seleucus, in 281 B.C., and his kingdom was divided. 
The lands in Asia Minor were added to Syria, and 
Thrace was absorbed by Macedonia. During two 
centuries the kingdom of the Seleucidos, or Syria, 
played an important part in the history of the 
world. It was founded by Seleucus Nicator, one 
of Alexander's generals, after a contest that lasted 
twenty years, and was terminated by the battle of 
Ipsus, 301 b.c. Syria and the East were given 
to Seleucus, Egypt to Ptolemy, Thrace to Lysi- 
machus, and Macedonia and Greece to Cassander. 
The kingdom of Seleucus at first consisted only of 
Babylonia, Susiana, Media, and Persia, but Seleu- 
cus afterwards made himself master of the coun- 
tries reaching from the Euphrates to the Indian 
Ocean. After the addition of nearly all of Asia 
Minor, Seleucus founded the city of Antioch, on 
the Orontes in Syria, and removed there his capi- 
tal from Babylonia. 

Seleucus died by assassination in 280 b.c, and 
was followed by a succession of kings known as 
the Seleucidae, who for about two centuries main- 
tained their rule over Syria. However, gradually 
many of the provinces fell away and became 
independent states. Antiochus III., called the 
"Great," for a short time raised the kingdom 
into prominence ; but he incurred the fatal hostil- 
ity of Rome by giving asylum to the defeated 



158 ANCIENT HISTORY 

Carthaginian general, Hannibal, and was defeated 
by the Romans at Magnesia in 190 B.C., a large part 
of Asia Minor falling into the hands of the victors. 
After the battle of Magnesia the kingdom of 
Syria was of no considerable importance in his- 
tory. War and revolts reduced the kingdom still 
further, and its remnants were finally conquered 
by Pompey and absorbed into the Roman Empire 
in 63 B.C. 

Egypt fell to the lot of Ptolemy, one of Alex- 
ander's generals. He is known as Ptolemy Soter 
(Deliverer), and reigned from 323-283 B.C. Dur- 
ing his reign Alexandria became a commercial 
city of the highest rank. He founded there a 
museum and library, and was a liberal patron of 
science, literature, and art. At the entrance of 
the harbour of Alexandria he built the Pharos, or 
lighthouse, the first structure of its kind, to guide 
the ships to his capital, and this was reckoned as 
one of the seven wonders of the world. He en- 
couraged poets, artists, philosophers, and teachers 
to settle in Alexandria, and his Court was cele- 
brated as containing the wisdom and the learning 
of the age. His son, Ptolemy Philadelphus, car- 
ried out the plans of his father so far as possible. 
He added largely to the royal library, and to ■ 
scholars extended the same patronage and en- 
couragement. The surname of Philadelphus was 
given to Ptolemy II. because of his devotion to 
his wife Arsinoe, who was also his sister. This 
usage of intermarriage among the members of the 



GREECE 159 

royal family was one of the causes which at last 
overwhelmed the Ptolemies with calamities. The 
last of the Ptolemies was Queen Cleopatra. On 
her death, in 30 B.C., Egypt became a Roman 
province. 

After the death of Alexander the Great, the 
Greeks were inspired with high hopes of freeing 
themselves from the fetters that bound them 
to Macedonia. Athens, under Demosthenes and 
Hyperides, took the lead in a confederacy of the 
Greek states, and entered on what is called the 
" Lamian War," which lasted from 323 until 321 
B.C. The struggle ended disastrously for Greece, 
and Demosthenes was forced to flee from Athens. 
He took refuge on the island of Calauria, off the 
coast of Argolis, and, being closely pursued by 
Antipater, killed himself by poison in the temple 
of Poseidon. 

The Gauls, barbaric tribes of Celts from Scythia, 
invaded Macedonia in 279 B.C., and both Mace- 
donia and Greece suffered greatly from these 
marauders. They finally were driven from Eu- 
rope and settled in Asia Minor, in the province 
of Galatia, named after them. 

Macedonia was then swallowed up by Rome. 
After a long conflict, lasting from 200 to 168 B.C., 
the Macedonian kingdom was overthrown at the 
battle of Pydna, in 168 b.c, and Perseus, the last 
of the kings of Macedonia, was led into Rome as 
prisoner in the triumph of the Roman general. 

The Greeks formed two leagues, called the 



l6o ANCIENT HISTORY 

vEtolian and Achaian Leagues. Soon after the 
conquest of Macedonia by the Romans, the MXo- 
lians were made tributaries to Rome. At the same 
time a thousand of the leading citizens of the 
Achaian League were led into captivity to Italy 
and kept as political prisoners for seventeen years. 
The Romans then released them, hoping that they 
would upon their return to their homes stir up 
the Greeks to some violent act against the Rom- 
ans, which would give them a pretext for an 
invasion and annexation of their territory. As 
the Romans had anticipated, the exiles had no 
sooner returned than they succeeded in inciting 
their countrymen to revolt against Rome. Cor- 
inth was taken by the Romans in 146 B.C., was 
laid in ashes, and made a Roman province, under 
the name of Achaia. This was the last act in the 
varied drama of the political life of the Greeks. 

126. Greek Architecture and Arts. — The earli- 
est structures are stone walls, tombs, and subter- 
ranean aqueducts, traces of which are found in 
various parts of Greece, Italy, and Asia Minor. 
The origin of these structures was unknown to the 
earliest Hellenes and was described by them to 
the giant Cyclops ; hence the name Cyclopean 
attached to them. These works show distinct 
stages of development. In the first structures the 
stones are large and untouched by the chisel ; in 
the next oldest are stones worked into polygonal 
blocks ; in the latest they are cut into rectangular 
shapes and laid in regular courses. The walls of 



GREECE l6l 

the old citadels and castles of some of the Greek 
cities are examples of this primitive architecture. 
The treasury of Atreus is a sample of the last 
stage of the Pelasgian architecture. 

In the early times the Greeks had no temples, 
and the statues of their gods were placed beneath 
trees in the forests. After a time they built rude 
shelters of trunks of the trees, shaped like the 
habitations of man, and the wooden frame was 
later replaced by a stone structure. As the stone 
was more durable than wood, more labour and 
thought were expended on these later structures, 
and architecture began to make rapid strides. In 
the century following the age of Solon there were 
many temples in different parts of Greece. 

The three styles or "orders" of Greek architect- 
ure were the Doric, the Ionic, and the Corinthian. 
They differ from each other in the proportion and 
ornamentation of the column. 

The Doric column is without a base, and has a 
massive and simple capital. The Proto-Doric 
column may be seen at Beni Hassan, in middle 
Egypt, in the rock-tombs. At first the Greek 
Doric columns were almost as massive as the 
Egyptian, and their temples corresponded in 
style, but later they became more refined. 

The Ionic column is characterised by the spiral 
volutes of the capital. The Assyrians first em- 
ployed this form, and as this style of column was 
principally adhered to by the Greeks of Ionia, it 
was named Ionian. 



1 62 A NCI EN T HIS TOR Y 

The Corinthian order is distinguished by the 
rich capital, composed of acanthus leaves. The 
elements in this type are Egyptian, Assyrian, and 
Grecian. The bell shape of the capital is taken 
from the Egyptians. This style of architecture 
was not much employed before the time of Alex- 
ander the Great. 

The entire structure was made to harmonise 
with the columns employed, and the general 
characteristics are well portrayed by speaking of 
the Doric order as of the "stern," of the Ionic 
as of the "graceful," and of the Corinthian as 
of the "ornate" styles of architecture. 

One of the oldest and most famous temples of 
the Greeks was the Temple of Diana at Ephesus. 
It was commenced in about 600 B.C., and is said 
to have been one hundred and twenty years in 
course of construction. Croesus gave liberally of 
his wealth in order to ornament the shrine, and it 
became known as one of the seven wonders. An 
ambitious youth, simply in order to immortalise 
his name, fired the building in 356 B.C., on the 
same night that Alexander was born. The roof of 
the temple was of cedar, and it was probably the 
only part destroyed, and the temple was rebuilt 
with even greater splendour. Alexander offered 
to rebuild the temple on condition that he be 
allowed to inscribe his name on it. His offer was 
declined by the Ephesians, with the courteous 
reply that it was not right for one deity to erect 
a temple to another. Alexander then placed a 



GREECE 163 

portrait of himself, by Apelles, within the temple. 
The gifts of kings and states to the temple were 
beyond all calculation, and as the painters and 
sculptors vied with each other to have their works 
given a place within the temple, it became a great 
national gallery of paintings and statues. 

The sanctity of the temple was preserved dur- 
ing war, and it became a repository of property or 
treasures in times of tumult and danger. The 
wealth within the temple became too great a 
temptation for the Roman Emperor Nero. He 
risked incurring the displeasure of Diana, and 
robbed the temple of a great amount of gold and 
many statues. During the invasion of the Goths 
it was ruined, and some of the columns were later 
taken to Byzantium, where they uphold the dome 
of the Mosque of St. Sophia ; other columns were 
taken to Italy and used in building Christian 
churches. 

The first temple at Delphi was erected over the 
spot whence the mysterious vapours were issuing, 
and was a rough wooden structure . In 5 48 b . c . the 
temple was destroyed by fire, and it was then re- 
built with the assistance of nearly all the cities 
and states of Hellas, and even the King of Egypt 
sent a contribution. It was rebuilt by the Alc- 
masonidae, the family of Megacles. The temple at 
Delphi was a massive structure, of colossal pro- 
portions and simple in style, characterised by the 
Doric column. Like the Temple of Diana at 
Ephesus, it was the subject of frequent robberies. 



164 ANCIENT HISTORY 

It was plundered by the Phocians, by Nero, and 
by Constantine. 

The Acropolis of Athens was a flat-topped rock 
which in the times of early Athens was used as a 
stronghold. Later the city was built beneath the 
Acropolis, and on the summit of the rock many 
temples and statues were built during the period 
of Athenian supremacy, especially during the age 
of Pericles. The Acropolis of Athens was famous 
because of the beautiful temples and statues, and 
the most celebrated of the buildings was the Par- 
thenon. It was designed by the architect Ictinus, 
and the sculptures adorning it were the work of 
the celebrated sculptor Phidias. 

The Parthenon was built, in the Doric order, of 
marble. It has served successively as a pagan 
temple, a Christian church, a Mohammedan 
mosque, and in the war with the Venetians in 1867 
was made the powder magazine of the Turks. 
An explosion shattered a great part of the build- 
ing, but the front part of it is still quite intact 
and is a conspicuous feature of the Acropolis at 
the present time. 

The most prominent of the Greek sculptors 
were Phidias, Praxiteles, and Chares. The chief 
works of Phidias were the statues of Athene within 
the Parthenon, and the statue of Zeus in the 
temple at Olympia. The statue of Athene was 
about forty feet high, and was made of gold and 
ivory. One hand of the goddess rested on a 
richly engraved shield, while the other held a 



GREECE 165 

small statue of Victory. The statue of Zeus was 
sixty feet high. It existed for eight hundred 
years and was destroyed by fire in the fifth cent- 
ury B.C. 

The best work of Praxiteles is the statue of 
Aphrodite in the temple at Cnidus, and it was 
regarded by the Greeks as the most perfect em- 
bodiment of the goddess of beauty. Some of the 
other works were the Satyr, Eros, Hermes, and by 
some the group representing the Niobe myth is 
ascribed to him. 

Chares was the sculptor of the so-called Colossus 
at Rhodes, one of the seven wonders of the world. 
The height of the statue was one hundred and 
seven feet, and it cost about five hundred thousand 
dollars to erect. It stood about half a century 
and was then overthrown by an earthquake. In 
a.d. 672 the statue was appropriated by the Arabs 
and sold to a Jewish merchant. 

The greatest impetus given to Greek architec- 
ture and sculpture was due to their use in connec- 
tion with the building of religious edifices. Greek 
painting lacked this impetus, and this can be 
taken as one of the reasons why we have less in- 
formation about the paintings of the Greeks than 
about any of the other arts practised by them. 
None of the works of the greater painters of an- 
tiquity has been preserved to our times, and our 
knowledge about Greek paintings is confined to 
information gained from descriptions of renowned 
works in books of ancient writers and the anec- 



1 66 A NCI EN T HIS TOR Y 

dotes of great painters. As they contain criti- 
cisms, they possess a literary as well as a technical 
and historical value. 

The names of Polygnotus, Zeuxis, Parrhasius, 
and Apelles are those of the chief painters of the 
Greeks. Polygnotus lived in the age of Pericles 
and is called the Prometheus of painting, because 
of his having been the first to give fire and anima- 
tion to the expression of the countenance. He 
painted Polyxena, the daughter of Priam, and of 
this picture it was said that "she carried in her 
eyelids the whole history of the Trojan War." 
He painted many frescoes on the public buildings 
of Athens, and the fall of Ilium and the battle of 
Marathon were among the subjects represented 
by him. 

Zeuxis and Parrhasius lived and painted about 
400 b.c. Their names are preserved in connec- 
tion with a story that commemorates their genius. 
Zeuxis is said to have painted a cluster of grapes 
which so closely imitated the real fruit that the 
birds pecked at them. Parrhasius painted a cur- 
tain and Zeuxis asked him to draw it aside and 
exhibit his picture. Zeuxis then admitted that 
he was surpassed, and said : " I deceived birds, but 
you have deceived the eyes of an experienced 
artist." Another story tells of Zeuxis that he 
died with a laugh on his features, looking at the 
picture of a woman he had painted himself. 

Apelles, who has been called the Raphael of 
antiquity, was the Court painter of Alexander the 



GREECE 167 

Great. His most celebrated painting was of 
Aphrodite rising from the sea-foam. Of Apelles 
the story is told that one day calling on another 
artist, named Protogenes, he found him absent, 
and instead of leaving his name he drew a single 
line on a canvas. When Protogenes returned and 
saw the line, he exclaimed that nobody but 
Apelles could have drawn it. In trying to imi- 
tate it he found that he had surpassed it, and he 
instructed his servant to call the stranger's atten- 
tion to it when he returned. Apelles was shown 
the line and he immediately drew a third line, 
which surpassed both. Another story is of the 
painting representing some horses. When the pic- 
ture was brought before horses, they neighed 
and showed by other intelligent signs that they 
recognised their companions on the canvas as real. 

B — The Governments of Greece 

127. Effects of Alexander's Conquests. — The 
casual student of history is apt to be impressed 
with the splendour and magnificence of Alexan- 
der's conquests, and to leave unnoticed the far- 
reaching effects upon Greece itself and upon the 
world. 

The mission of Macedonia in the East was the 
dissemination of Greek institutions, civilisation, 
language, customs, and manners among the in- 
habitants of the regions conquered by Alexander 
the Great in his victorious campaigns, the line of 



1 68 ANCIENT HISTORY 

his march constituting, so to speak, a pathway 
by which Hellenic civilisation was to make its 
advance. 

The conquests of Macedon resulted in the com- 
plete Hellenisation of Asia Minor, and while the 
influence of Greek civilisation was carried among 
the Orientals, the Greeks themselves became in- 
fused with Macedonian and barbaric blood. The 
distinction between Greek and barbarian being 
thus largely obliterated, a new Greek race was 
produced whose sympathies were broader, being 
much more open to receive outside influences than 
the old Greeks, and thus a new orientalised Greek 
civilisation was created. How T ever, the contact 
with the voluptuous life and the vices of the Orien- 
tals also had a demoralising effect upon Hellenic 
life, and the corruption was transmitted by Greece 
to Rome, undermining the civilisation of antiquity. 

128. The Achaian League. — In the year 280 B.C. 
some Achaian towns expelled their Macedonian 
masters, and then formed themselves into a 
league for the defence of their liberty. Sicyon 
joined the confederation and gave to the Achaian 
League in the person of Aratus an efficient and 
able leader, the membership of the league in- 
creasing gradually, until Trcezen, Megara, Epi- 
daurus, Megalopolis, and Argos were included. 
The league retained its importance until after the 
defeat of Philip V. of Macedon at Cynoscephalas, 
in 197 b.c, when Rome assumed the protectorate 
over Greece. A revolt of the cities forming the 



GREECE 169 

Achaian League against the Roman protectorate 
was crushed in 146 B.C., when Corinth was laid in 
ashes and Greece became a part of the Roman 
Empire. 

At the time of the formation of the Achaian 
League another confederation sprang into exist- 
ence, namely, the ^Etolian League, which at one 
time comprised Thessaly, Locris, Phocis, Bceotia, 
Southern Epirus, and Acarnania. The political 
organisation of this league bore a close resem- 
blance to that of the Achaian League, and the 
rivalry between the two leagues was one of the 
causes of the inability of the Greeks to maintain 
their political independence, the fatal spirit of 
dissension and separation again acting as a chief 
factor to the detriment of the Hellenic people. 

The Achaian League was governed by an assem- 
bly, to which fell the election of all the officials, 
as well as the management of the affairs of all the 
confederated cities. A council, composed of two 
general officers, some subordinate general officers, 
a secretary, and a permanent executive commit- 
tee of ten, prepared the business of the assembly, 
which was presided over by the board of execu- 
tive officers. The principal defect in the organisa- 
tion of the league was the voting in the assembly, 
which was by towns, the number of the freemen 
actually present not being considered, so that the 
smallest delegation from some distant town had 
an equal vote with the largest. 

The organisation of the .^Etolian League resem- 



170 ANCIENT HISTORY 

bles that outlined above, but information about 
this confederation is not as available as that about 
the Achaian League, and there appear to have 
been some marked differences. So, for instance, 
the ^Etolian League was a confederation of tribes 
and not of cities, while its leadership was purely 
military. 

129. The Spartan Citizen-Garrison. — The singu- 
lar, fixed, and efficient character of the constitu- 
tion of Sparta in all its phases presents a marked 
contrast to the constitution of Athens, which lat- 
ter may be regarded as typical of Greek life and 
politics, and was the result of her history and of 
the peculiar position in which the Spartans were 
placed as conquerors of the land occupied by 
them. Their numerical strength probably never 
exceeded fifteen thousand, and as they lived 
among a people outnumbering them ten to one, 
who had to be kept in forcible subjection, many 
of their unique institutions may be explained as 
resulting from necessity, especially the military 
features and the supervision and practical owner- 
ship by the state of all property. The purpose of 
the early legislation having been the equal appor- 
tionment of wealth among the Spartans, the citi- 
zens were thus to be relieved from the pursuit of 
wealth, so that their entire services might be at 
all times at the call of the state. 

130. Relations of the Different Classes. — Slaves, 
Helots, Periceci, and Spartiatse constituted the 
different classes of the Spartan population. The 



GREECE 171 

slaves were not very numerous, and it is probable 
that there were only enough for the household 
sendees of the wealthy families, and the labourers 
for the state. The Helots were the descendants of 
the subjugated native population of Laconia, and 
were the property of the state and not of the 
Spartan lords upon whose estates they toiled. 
They had no privileges whatsoever, being serfs in 
fact, but as such they were not personal property, 
could not be sold at the pleasure of their masters, 
and were inseparable from the land upon which 
they served. 

The Periceci, or neighbours, were subjects of 
Sparta to whom freedom had been left, but no 
part in the political organisation of the state. 
They were permitted to pursue their own course 
in life, to engage in commerce, and to manage 
their own cities; but in return for this freedom 
they were required to pay regular tributes and to 
furnish military assistance in time of war. There 
were also in all probability a class, or classes, of a 
status between the Helots and the Periceci, but 
sufficient data are not furnished by history to 
influence the estimate of Spartan life and customs. 

The Spartiatae were the only citizens of Sparta. 
As stated before, they were largely outnumbered 
by their subjects, but they successfully main- 
tained their exclusive privileges. Among them- 
selves all citizens of Sparta were equals, and in 
the earlier days this equality may actually have 
been realised ; in later periods, however, the duty 



172 ANCIENT HISTORY 

of the state to apportion the entire wealth of the 
country, of which the state was trustee, among 
the citizens, with a view to sustaining this equal- 
ity, ceased to be so exercised, and two distinctive 
classes resulted — a small class of the rich and 
another large one, consisting of the comparatively 
or utterly poor. 

131. Government of Sparta. — The Government 
of Sparta was administered by two Kings, five 
Ephors, a Council of Elders, and the Popular 
Assembly. 

The two Kings were practically only the nomi- 
nal heads of the legislative and judicial bodies, 
the high-priests of the people in time of peace, and 
commanders-in-chief in time of war. 

The Council of Elders was elected by the Popu- 
lar Assembly. It consisted of thirty members, 
including the two kings, and only nobles over 
sixty years of age were eligible, the members of 
the council holding their office for life. Although 
the kings interpreted the law and possessed some 
judicial powers, all capital and other serious 
offences, as well as cases affecting the kings, were 
judged by the Council of Elders, who had juris- 
diction over the kings and also passed upon all 
matters of administration. 

The five Ephors were the deputies of the kings 
and their assistants in the performance of their 
judicial and other duties. They were at first 
appointed by the Kings, but later were elected by 
the Popular Assembly. 



GREECE 173 

The Assembly consisted of all citizens over 
thirty years of age, but except that it had the 
power to vote on matters referred to it, the Assem- 
bly took no part in the deliberations. The vote 
was given viva voce, and it remained for the Ephors 
to decide as to the result, which no doubt they 
often did in accordance with their own pleasure. 
The small importance of the Popular Assembly in 
decisions of matters administrative and politic is 
made evident by the fact that the Council of 
Elders possessed the privilege to decide whether 
the vote of the Assembly was decisive or not. 

132. The Ephors. — At first the real power was 
vested in the Council of Elders, whose functions 
in legislative matters were partly sovereign and 
whose powers were almost unlimited. In time, 
however, the Ephors acquired authority not only 
equal to that of the kings, but even more superior, 
and virtually became overseers of the actions of 
the kings, with power to prefer charges against 
them before the Council of Elders. 

Their power extended even farther, as they had 
the supervision of the state discipline, of the fi- 
nances of the state, and presided in the Council of 
Elders as well as in the Popular Assembly, and 
their supreme authority was held in check only 
by the short tenure of office, which was one year, 
and the fact that they were liable to be accused 
and punished by their successors. 

133. The Spartan Constitution. — -The constitution 
of Sparta undoubtedly was no more a creation 



1 74 A NCIEN T HIS TORY 

than that of any other Hellenic city, but a growth 
from crude beginnings through various stages of 
development. The circumstances that the Spar- 
tans were compelled to hold a people much superi- 
or to themselves in a state of subjection by force, 
had been the cause of giving the Spartan constitu- 
tion its peculiar character at a very early period, 
and this character it maintained throughout the 
period of Sparta's growth. Later, the Spartan 
constitution experienced almost the same changes 
as that of Athens. The Spartans regarded their 
constitution as the creation of Lycurgus. 

134. Discipline. — The question of discipline was 
one of great importance in the social and political 
organisation of Sparta. The individual was under 
restraint from the time of his birth until his lia- 
bility to military service ceased, and this did not 
take place before he had reached the advanced 
age of sixty years. As stated before, every new- 
born child was taken before the Ephors to be in- 
spected with respect to its health. If deformed 
or sickly, the child was exposed in the ravines of 
the Taygetus to die, or it was thrust among the 
Periceci. At the age of seven years the educa- 
tion of the boy was taken up by the state, the 
principal aim being the training of the body so 
as to produce a thorough soldier. Even girls 
were educated by the state, and with them, as 
with the boys, the object was to make them as 
hardy as possible. The discipline of the state 
extended over the grown-up persons as well. The 



GREECE 1 7 '5 

men ate at common tables, the so-called Syssitia, 
even their officials being compelled to do so, not 
excepting the kings, and they slept in barracks. 
It is said that an Athenian, who had occasion to 
see the Spartans at their common meals, was so 
impressed by the frugality of their lives that he 
exclaimed: "No wonder the Spartans are ready 
to die on the battle-field, for death must be sweeter 
than such a life." 

135. Athens. — The chief magistracy of Athens 
was an hereditary kingship. After the death of 
Codrus, the authority of the king was greatly 
diminished, and although the heirs of Codrus re- 
tained the title of kings, the power of the regal 
office was transferred to the two magistrates 
chosen by the nobles from among themselves, 
namely, the Polemarchos, who exercised the mili- 
tary authority, and the Archon, who assumed the 
civic duties. In 752 B.C. the authority of the 
king was further reduced, the hereditary principle 
and life tenure of the king as well as of other 
magistrates being abolished, and these offices were 
made elective. The King and the Polemarchos 
were elected from the families in which the re- 
spective offices had been held from the first, the 
term of the tenure being ten years, and both of 
these offices were made subordinate to that of the 
Archon, who was to be the actual head of the state. 

136. The Archons. — Scarcely half a century 
had passed when the change was carried farther, 
all the nobles being made eligible for the three 



176 ANCIENT HISTORY 

principal offices, and later the tenure of office was 
reduced to one year, while the chief magistracy- 
was vested in a board of nine Archons, one of 
whom was chief, or Archon Eponymos, after 
whom the year was named in all official docu- 
ments ; the second was the successor to the kingly 
and priestly dignity, called Archon Basileus ; and 
the third exercised the functions of the Polemar- 
chos, being named Archon Polemarchos. These 
three Archons were the chief magistrates, while 
the six additional Archons, called Thesmothetse, 
at first probably were only assistants or secre- 
taries to the three principal Archons, although 
later they were also endowed with some judicial 
powers. The Archons constituted a judicial body, 
jointly, for the trying of special cases, such as the 
punishment of banished persons who had broken 
the banishment. As single judges, the three prin- 
cipal Archons were assigned the more important 
functions, the Archon Eponymos deciding cases 
of family law and of inheritance, the Archon 
Basileus those of a religious character, and the 
Archon Polemarchos considering all disputes be- 
tween foreigners and resident aliens. The other 
six Archons took charge of the cases not specially 
assigned. 

137. Draco's Constitutional Changes a Failure. — 
Draco had been commissioned in 621 b.c, as 
related in Sec. 96, to meet the demand of the 
people by remodelling the constitution and draw- 
ing up a code of laws which would protect them 



GREECE 177 

against the often arbitrary and unjust dealings 
of the Areopagus. In mapping out his reforms, 
Draco failed to accomplish the object in view, 
because, while his changes gave to the people 
some rights in the management of affairs of state, 
he did not make any provision for an improve- 
ment of the deplorable condition of the poor, who 
still remained subject to the same hard debtor 
laws. Thus, while theoretically their social posi- 
tion was improved, all persons who owned a yoke 
of oxen and were able to provide themselves with 
a full military equipment of a hoplite, being now 
admitted to political privilege, their economic 
condition made the practical attainment of an 
actual improvement for them very difficult. The 
fact was developed within a very short time after 
the institution of Draco's reforms, that more 
radical changes were needed, which would place 
within the reach of the newly enfranchised class 
the means of attaining the social improvement 
granted to them, by removing the principal ob- 
stacle, the heavy burden of debts. 

138. The Need for Constitutional Reform. — Solon 
was k chosen Archon Eponymos at a time when 
the various factions in the state were clamouring 
for a reform in the constitution. The need 
for constitutional changes was brought about by 
the discontent of two parties, called the men of 
the Shore and the men of the Mountains, who were 
determined to win for themselves some of the 
privileges from which they had been debarred to 



178 ANCIENT HISTORY 

the benefit of the Eupatrides, or Aristocrats. The 
economic conditions of the two parties were not 
encouraging, as they were unable to make any 
progress toward improvement without having to 
borrow capital, which they could obtain only upon 
terms which exposed them to the danger of being 
sold into slavery if they failed to comply with the 
strict terms of the contract. The distress was 
keenest among the mountaineers, who had none 
of the limited resources of the men of the Shore, 
and even the Sixthers, or Hektemoroi, who were 
working the farms of the nobles, were finding it 
extremely difficult to comply with their contracts, 
which required them to give five-sixths of the 
produce of the land to their landlords, retaining 
for themselves only one-sixth for sustenance. 
Another factor, which brought the Eupatrides 
face to face with the urgent necessity for some 
action, was the change in warfare, which trans- 
ferred the main reliance from the mounted knights 
and the men in chariots to the hoplite, the heavily 
armed foot -soldier, drawn from the classes men- 
tioned, as they saw that they could not perma- 
nently depend upon this source if they failed to 
remedy some of the evils of existing conditions. 

139. Solon's Economic Reforms. — Solon clearly 
appreciated the urgency of a change in this direc- 
tion, and his first economic measure was the dras- 
tic one of cancelling all outstanding debts, both 
public and private; of liberating the men held 
in slavery because of debt, and of annulling the 



GREECE 179 

mortgages on the farms of the yeomen. Next he 
modified the debtor law, so that the right of cred- 
itors to sell debtors into slavery was declared 
abolished; and having thus relieved the poor, 
Solon proceeded to introduce various improve- 
ments in industrial conditions, reforming the 
monetary system, discarding the clumsy coins and 
the antiquated system of weights, and substitut- 
ing the coins and measures of Eubcea. He also 
effected a change in taxation, by which the first 
three property classes were taxed with some 
equity and were subject to military duty; while 
the fourth, the class of dependent manual la- 
bourers, was exempt from both taxation and mili- 
tary service. The classification was graded with 
regard to landed property, and the income there- 
from by the owners. 

140. Solon's Political Reforms. — Solon's politi- 
cal, reforms were based upon this classification 
according to wealth, and he admitted the fourth 
class, the Thetes, to a vote in the Ecclesia, the 
Popular Assembly, to which body the magistrates 
were made accountable for their administration, 
as it had the right to impeach them at the close 
of their term of office. The Assembly also had the 
right of final decision in questions of war and 
peace, and it constituted the popular restraining 
authority upon the magistrates, who henceforth 
were to be chosen only from the first property 
class, excepting only certain minor magistrates 
open to all the property classes. 



180 ANCIENT HISTORY 

The Council of Four Hundred, established by 
Draco, was reorganised by Solon, all citizens, ex- 
cepting the Thetes, being made eligible to mem- 
bership, elections being conducted by lot. The 
duty of this council was to prepare the measures 
to be laid before the Popular Assembly. 

The judicial powers of the Areopagus, which 
had been transferred by Draco to a committee of 
the Council of Four Hundred, were restored to it 
by Solon, and these powers were increased in the 
case of law-breakers and conspirators against the 
state. The duties of the Archons were left with- 
out change, but their judicial powers were greatly 
diminished by the establishment of the important 
democratic jury courts, to which many cases hith- 
erto covered by the jurisdiction of the Archons 
could now be appealed. 

141. Solon's Work the Basis for Later Reforms. 
— The successful rule of Pisistratus, who usurped 
the power in Athens in 560 B.C. (see Sec. 98), was 
instrumental in retaining the principal features of 
Solon's legislation, which were to be made the 
basis of later and permanent reforms. As he pro- 
fessed to be a friend of the people, it became a 
matter of policy with him to retain the salient 
features of the constitution as amended by Solon, 
and he upheld the same through many conflicts of 
the various parties. 

142. New Citizens. — Clisthenes (see Sec. 99) ad- 
mitted to citizenship the resident aliens and the 
emancipated slaves, still retaining the four pro- 



GREECE l8l 

perty classes into which the citizens of Athens 
were divided. Then, recognising the urgency of 
popular clamour for a democratic constitution, he 
set about the difficult task of effecting a recon- 
struction of the four ancient tribes in such a way 
as to eliminate the objectionable contrasts in 
privileges, which had not been modified by Solon. 
He therefore grouped the Demes, or districts, of 
which there were at first probably one hundred, 
into thirty larger districts, called Trittyes, ten of 
which were formed from the Demes of Athens and 
of the plains, ten from the mountain districts, and 
ten from the shore districts. These thirty dis- 
tricts he again formed into ten tribes, assigning 
by lot to each tribe one district from the plains, 
one from the mountain, and the third from the 
coast. The four ancient tribes thus entirely lost 
their political significance and continued to exist 
only as religious organisations. In order to give 
to his political reform the sanction which it could 
derive only from custom and religion, Clisthenes 
introduced ecclesiastical reforms as well, giving to 
the new tribes separate religious status and ob- 
servances, and as they could not be introduced into 
the old clans, he formed them into religious so- 
cieties and placed these within the larger religious 
associations, the Phratries, into which the Gentes 
were grouped, or formed new Phratries, endeav- 
ouring to associate the members of each Deme 
within one Phratria. 

From each of the ten tribes fifty delegates to 



1 8 2 A NCI EN T HIS TOR Y 

the council were chosen, the membership being 
increased from four hundred to five hundred. 
The number of jury courts was also increased, and 
the members were elected proportionately from 
each tribe. The most characteristic of the inno- 
vations was the institution known as Ostracism, 
which he established to prevent the possibility of 
a recurrence of an usurpation similar to that of 
Pisistratus, and it proved effectual in gaining for 
the new constitution that necessary peace and 
tranquillity without which it would not have been 
enabled to grow into definite and permanent 
shape had the rivalries of party strife been per- 
mitted to go on entirely unchecked. 

143. The New Tribes. — The establishment of 
the ten tribes was the indirect cause of many 
changes in the official organisation. The nine 
Archons, with their secretary, came to be looked 
upon as a board of ten, there were ten generals or 
Strategoi, each holding the military command of 
his tribe, and most of the administrative boards 
were brought to this number of members. Be- 
sides this change, the Demes were made the units 
in local administration, the Demarchs, who were 
appointed annually by lot, being not only officers 
of the state but also the heads of their respective 
communities, and as such they took upon them- 
selves the office of Naucrarius, the old system of 
division into Naucraries being abolished with the 
establishment of the Demes, each one of the latter 
now taking the place of a Naucraria. 



GREECE I 83 

The principal effect of the reform of Clisthenes 
was the shifting of power from the Areopagus or 
Council to the Popular Assembly. The wars with 
the Persians somewhat delayed this achievement, 
but with success in the wars came organised disci- 
pline and administrative ability, and during the age 
of Pericles the Athenian democracy was supreme. 

144. Pericles. — Pericles attained his almost ab- 
solute authority in Athens through his influence 
with the Popular Assembly, and although he was 
never Archon, he held the offices of Strategos, 
superintendent of finances and of public works, 
and as incumbent of these offices he accomplished 
the increase of the naval power of Athens, the 
building of many splendid public edifices and 
erection of monuments, etc., which gained for the 
period the lasting appellation of the "Age of 
Pericles." He introduced the system of pay- 
ments to citizens for military service, service as 
jurymen, and for attendance at the meetings of 
the Popular Assembly. To various offices, hith- 
erto without any pay, he now attached salaries, 
and thereby enabled the poorer citizens to offer 
themselves as candidates for various offices. 
Pericles attached much importance to the theatre 
as a means for the education of the people, and 
his policy of having free tickets issued to the 
people for admittance to theatres and of paying 
them for the performance of their duties was ex- 
tended even further after his death and during 
the beginning of the final decline of Athens. This 



1 84 ANCIENT HISTORY 

decline was the consequence of the disregard of the 
deep instinct of local patriotism by the Empire, 
the confederates of Athens being held by her in a 
state of subjection scarcely much above practical 
dependency. 

145. The Non-Citizen Classes. — These were the 
slaves and the resident aliens, called the Metoici. 
The slaves were the descendants of the populace 
of subjugated provinces, barbarian captives of 
war, criminals and debtors condemned to servi- 
tude, or slaves bought in the various slave -markets 
of the East. They were compelled to serve in 
multitudinous ways, performed most of the farm 
labours, were also utilised as miners, artisans, and 
common labourers, while some were employed as 
traders, and others even occupied positions of 
trust as secretaries, etc. They had no part in the 
political organisation. 

The Metoici were principally foreign traders, 
whom commercial advantages offered by Athens 
had induced to take up their residence there. 
They possessed many privileges, but numerous re- 
strictions were placed upon them in dealing with 
the State. They could not acquire land without 
special legislative permission, were obliged to 
chose a patron as intermediary between them and 
the State, and to pay taxes the same as if they had 
been citizens, and also special tributes for trading 
privileges. They were admitted to citizenship by 
Clisthenes, together with the emancipated slaves. 

146. Greek Political Administration. — Very few 



GREECE 185 

details about Greek political administration are 
available, a general view of the subject being ob- 
tained from Aristotle's Constitution of Athens. 
The government superintended trade and com- 
merce, forests, public buildings, finances, and 
there were military offices, like those of the Archon 
Polemarchos and the Strategoi. Besides these, 
there were officials to draw up legal documents, 
auditors of the accounts of those who handled 
public moneys ; and superintendents of public 
worship, the heirs of the ancient kingly duty. In 
Sparta to the above were added officers to super- 
vise the training of the boys and the state dis- 
cipline, public cooks, and superintendent of the 
public messes. 

C — Greek Culture 

147. Two Epics of Ancient Greece. — The Iliad 
and the Odyssey. The subject of the Iliad is the 
ten years' siege of Troy or Ilium, by the confed- 
erate States of Greece under Agamemnon, King of 
My cense, to avenge the injury done to Menelaus, 
King of Sparta, by the kidnapping of his wife, 
Helen. Helen was carried off by Paris, the second 
son of Priam, King of Ilium, having been given to 
him by Aphrodite as a reward for his decision in 
her favour in the contest of beauty between her, 
Athene, and Hera. The Iliad is made up of two 
epics : the " Wrath of Achilles " and the " Doom of 
Ilios." Each consists of twelve books, the first 
twelve ranging from the contention of Achilles and 



1 86 ANCIENT HISTORY 

Agamemnon and the combats between Menelaus 
and Paris, and Hector and Ajax, to the battle at 
the Grecian wall. The second twelve books de- 
scribe the fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh battles, 
the reconciliation of Achilles and Agamemnon, the 
battle of the gods, the death of Hector, and the 
recovery of his body. The direct narrative re- 
lates only to a part of the last year of the siege 
and leaves the fall of Troy untold. 

The Odyssey describes the adventures of Odys- 
seus (Ulysses) during ten years of wandering, 
spent in endeavours to return to Ithaca. It re- 
presents Odysseus as being thrown at the outset 
of the voyage on the coast of Thrace, then to 
Libya and to the goat -island. From the latter 
he sailed to the island of the Cyclopes (the western 
coast of Sicily), and after having been made a 
prisoner by the Cyclops, Polyphemus, he made 
him drunk with wine and with his surviving com- 
panions escaped by concealing themselves under 
the bellies of the sheep which Cyclops was letting 
out of his cave. After having lost all his ships 
except one, Odysseus landed on the island of the 
sorceress Circe, who sent him on a journey to 
Hades ; then he sailed by the island of the Sirens, 
passed between Scylla and Charybdis, and landed 
on the island of Helios. His companions killed 
some oxen belonging to Helios, and the result was 
their death, Odysseus alone escaping to the island 
of Ogygia, where he lived with the nymph Calypso 
for eight years. He left the island on a raft, and 



GREECE 187 

after reaching Scheria, the island of the Phasacians, 
was carried by them to Ithaca, where, after having 
killed the suitors of his wife, Penelope, who had 
been squandering his property during his absence 
of twenty years, he was welcomed by his wife and 
his subjects. 

At first both the Iliad and the Odyssey were 
ascribed to a single poet named Homer, who was 
believed to have lived in the ninth or tenth cent- 
ury b.c, one or two centuries after the events 
described in the poems. At the close of the 
eighteenth century a German scholar, Wolf, after 
a careful study of the two poems, declared that 
they were not the work of a single mind, but that 
each poem was made up of a large number of short 
ballads which had become very popular, and were 
united by the tyrant, Pisistratus, in the sixth 
century b.c The controversy arising from Wolf's 
declaration thus far has yielded the following 
results : Neither the Iliad nor the Odyssey is the 
work of one poet. They are of composite charac- 
ter, and the nucleus of the Iliad alone, the " Wrath 
of Achilles," can be ascribed to one bard; the 
Odyssey is even said to be probably a century 
younger than the Iliad. Wolf was not the first 
to call up the questions about the author of the 
famous epics. As early as 170 b.c, Hellanicus 
asserted that the Iliad and Odyssey were by dif- 
ferent writers. 

148. Hesiod and Pindar. — Hesiod was a poet of 
rural life and morality ; Pindar was a lyric poet. 



1 88 ANCIENT HISTORY 

Hesiod lived, according to a poem attributed to 
him, in the eighth century B.C., in the village of 
Ascra, in Bceotia, and his youth was spent in rural 
pursuits. There are no absolute data about his 
life, which is shrouded in mystery as is Homer's; 
and modern theories hold that the poet never 
existed, but that the name represents simply a 
personification of the Hesiodic school of poetry as 
opposed to the Homeric school. The Homeric 
bards sing of a time when gods mingled with men, 
while the Hesiodic poems describe the every-day 
life of common men. 

Pindar, probably the greatest Greek lyric poet, 
was born at Cynoscephalae, near Thebes, about 
522 b.c; he died at Argos in 443 b.c There is 
very little known about his life. He resided 
chiefly at Thebes, but spent four years at the 
Court of Hieron in Syracuse. 

The greatest poem of Hesiod is a didactic epic, 
entitled Works and Days. This is, in the main, a 
sort of farmer's calendar, and contains instruc- 
tions as to rural economy, interspersed with 
maxims of morality. 

The works of Pindar were inspired by the na- 
tional festivals. There are forty-four complete 
Odes of Victory, fourteen of which are of the 
games at Olympia, twelve of the games at Delphi, 
seven of the Nemean games, and eleven of the 
Isthmian games. 

149. The Greek Drama. — Both branches of the 
Greek drama, tragedy and comedy, had their 



GREECE 1 89 

origin in the usages of religious worship, having 
grown out of the hymns and dances in honour 
of the God of Wine, Dionysus. The goat being a 
spoiler of vines, the songs sung at the sacrifices to 
Bacchus, goat songs, are the source from which 
the name rpayoodia, from rpayos, goat, is derived 
for tragedy. These songs were the graver songs, 
while from the lighter and farcical village songs 
the word comedy is derived, from k&3/<os 7 merry- 
making. That branch of the drama which 
appeals chiefly to the sense of the ridiculous, 
humorous, or farcical, is called the comedy, while 
tragedy addresses itself to the more serious and 
profound emotions. 

The three great tragedians of Greece were 
/Eschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides. 

^Eschylus was born at Eleusis, in Attica, in 525 
b.c. He died at Gela, Sicily, in 456 b.c. ^Eschy- 
lus was perhaps the greatest of the Greek tragic 
poets. He was the son of Euphorion, and fought 
in the great battles of the Persian War. After hav- 
ing gained thirteen tragic victories, ^Eschylus was 
defeated in 468 by Sophocles. He quitted Athens 
the same year because of this defeat, and went 
to the Court of Hieron at Syracuse. There are 
known seventy-two titles of his dramas, of which 
sixty are admitted to be genuine. However, only 
seven of this number are now extant. These are 
the Supplices, Persce, Seven against Thebes, Prome- 
theus Vinctus, and the Orestean trilogy, consist- 
ing of Agamemnon, Chocphorie, and the Eumenides. 



1 90 A NCI EN T HIS TOR Y 

Sophocles was born at Colonus, near Athens, 
in 496 b.c. He died in 405 b.c. He defeated 
^Eschylus for the tragic prize in 468, and was in 
turn defeated by Euripides in 441 b.c His 
tragedies, which by most modern critics are ad- 
mitted to be the most perfect the world has ever 
known, are (Edipus Tyrannns, CEdipus at Colonus, 
Antigone, Electra, Philoctetes, Ajax, and Maidens 
of Trachis. 

The birth of Euripides is placed by some on the 
day of the battle of Salamis. This is doubtful, 
but it is reasonably certain that he was born in 
that year. He died about 406 b.c. at the Court- of 
Archelaus, King of Macedonia, where he had gone 
in 408 because of the attacks of Sophocles and 
Aristophanes. He was more popular than either 
iEschylus or Sophocles, as /Eschylus was too se- 
vere and earnest a poet to remain long a favourite 
with the Athenians, and Sophocles was not sensa- 
tional enough. The fame of Euripides passed far 
beyond the limits of Greece. It is said that pris- 
oners at Syracuse could purchase their liberty by 
teaching their masters such of the verses of Eurip- 
ides as they remembered. Of the hundred plays 
which he is said to have written, only seventeen 
are extant. The Iphigenia among the Tauri, 
Helena, Orestes, Iphigenia at Aitlis, and Cyclops 
are some of the best known of his plays. 

Aristophanes was the greatest of the Greek 
comic writers. He lived from about 444 to 380 
b.c. The most noted of his works are The Clouds, 



GREECE I9I 

The Knights, The Birds, The Wasps, Peace, and 
The Frogs. Aristophanes was very conservative 
and was opposed to radicalism and the advanced 
democracy. His ideal was the sturdy citizen- 
warrior of Marathon, and he defended the old 
worship of the gods, and was never slow to 
attack Socrates and Euripides for their part in 
breaking up the old faith and establishing the new 
school. He expressed his likes and dislikes freely 
in his plays, and as they were mostly based on 
some local subject, he was a very useful censor to 
the city of Athens. So, for instance, his play of 
The Birds appeared at the time when Alcibiades 
was promoting his ambitious Sicilian scheme, and 
it contains a satire on the prevalence of fanaticism 
and caprice over law and order. 

150. Historians. — The three best-known his- 
torians were Herodotus, Thucydides, and Xeno- 
phon. 

Herodotus was born about 484 at Halicarnas- 
sus, in Asia Minor. He is called the " Father of 
History." He travelled over much of the then 
known world, and visited Italy, Egypt, and Baby- 
lonia. From these travels he gained the materials 
for his stories of the wonders he had seen in the 
different lands. He wrote the history of the 
Persian invasion down to 479 B.C., the Persian 
War being the main theme around which he 
grouped interesting stories of nations of antiquity. 
His narrative is not always reliable, as he was 
much imposed upon by the guides in Egypt and 



I92 ANCIENT HISTORY 

Babylonia, and many of his descriptions of scenes 
of which he claimed to have been an eye-witness 
were taken from the experiences of other people. 

Thucydides lived from about 471 to 400 b.c. 
He was not as popular a historian as Herodotus. 
During the first years of the Peloponnesian War 
he had a military command. By some mistake 
he failed to prevent the taking of Amphipolis by 
Brasidas and went into exile for twenty years, 
returning in 403. He wrote a History of the War 
between the Peloponnesians and the Athenians. 
He died before finishing the work, which is con- 
sidered the model of historical writing. It is said 
that Demosthenes read and re-read his writings 
in order to improve his own style, and the greatest 
orators and historians of modern times have as 
diligently studied the incomparable history. 

Xenophon was born at Athens in about 445 b.c. 
He is well known both as a writer and as a general. 
He joined the expedition of Cyrus the Younger, 
and after the battle of Cunaxa and the murder of 
the Greek generals was elected the leader of the 
Greeks, and accomplished the memorable retreat 
which is the subject of his Anabasis. He fought on 
the side of the Spartans in the battle of Coronea 
in 394, was banished from Athens, and is said to 
have passed his last years in Corinth. He died in 
about 355 b.c. His writings are the Anabasis, 
mentioned before ; the Memorabilia, a defence of 
the memory of his teacher, Socrates; the Hel- 
lenica (in seven books) ; the Cyropcedia, etc. 



GREECE I93 

151. The Orators. — Oratory was important in 
Athens because in the Popular Assembly all ques- 
tions relating to affairs of the State were discussed, 
the debates being open to all. A person pro- 
ficient in oratory was certain of attaining leader- 
ship in politics. The law-courts, in which the 
citizens were obliged to be their own lawyers, were 
also a school of oratory. The prevalence of the 
habit of public-speaking was one of the causes of 
the intellectual eminence of the Athenians, and 
all the prominent statesmen of Athens were mas- 
ters of oratory. 

Themistocles, Pericles, Demosthenes, and JEs- 
chines were leaders in political affairs and gifted 
orators. Themistocles became a political leader 
in opposition to Aristides, who was ostracised. 
He exercised his powers of eloquence to persuade 
the Athenians to increase their naval armament, 
induced them to leave Athens and to take to their 
ships, and brought about the victory of Salamis. 
He urged the building of fortifications on the 
Pirasus and in Athens. At last he was ostracised 
and found a refuge in Magnesia. 

Pericles, another Athenian statesman and ora- 
tor, also owed his leadership to his powers of 
oratory. He was instrumental in bringing about 
the ostracism of Cimon and Thucydides. The 
period in which he lived is called the Age of 
Pericles, and is the most brilliant part of the his- 
tory of Athens. He encouraged the finishing of 
the fortifications begun by Themistocles; caused 



194 ANCIENT HISTORY 

the building of the Parthenon, the Propylaea, 
Odeon, etc., and was a liberal patron of art and 
literature. 

Demosthenes was the greatest of Greek orators. 
He foresaw the designs of Philip of Macedon, and 
against him he hurled the speeches known as the 
Philippics, which are so filled with fierce denun- 
ciation that they have given name to all writ- 
ings characterised by bitterness of criticism. He 
caused the Athenians to send a fleet to Byzan- 
tium, which was besieged by Philip, and later per- 
suaded them to form an alliance with Thebes 
against Philip. He was one of the leaders in the 
unsuccessful rising which took place after the 
death of Philip, was exiled by the Macedonians, 
and returned to Athens after the death of Alex- 
ander the Great. When Athens was taken by 
Antipater, he fled and poisoned himself to avoid 
capture. 

yEschines was the political opponent of Demos- 
thenes. When the Athenians proposed to award 
to Demosthenes a golden crown, in appreciation 
of his services for the State, he bitterly opposed 
the award, and was defeated by Demosthenes in 
a debate. He went into exile and established a 
school of oratory at Rhodes. 

152. The Philosophers. — The first school of 
philosophy was in the cities of Ionia, in Asia 
Minor. Greek philosophy taught that matter and 
mind are inseparable, or, in other words, that all 
matter is animate. The animated matter ap- 



GREECE 195 

pear§d in four forms — fire, water, earth, and air. 
Out of these four elements all things in heaven 
and on earth were made. The philosophers differed 
as to which of these four elements was the original 
principle, some holding that it was water, others 
believed it to have been the air or fire. From the 
original principle or element the others were be- 
lieved to have been derived by some process of 
condensation. The wood and flesh of the sacri- 
fices made to the gods were transformed into fire, 
and this explains the fundamental idea of the 
ancient custom. They offered the sacrifices in 
their converted form to the gods as food. 

The views of Copernicus were anticipated by 
two thousand years by Pythagoras, a famous 
philosopher and mathematician. He established 
a philosophical school at Crotona in Italy. His 
view, imparted only to his most trusted pupils, 
was that the earth is a sphere, and that it revolves 
with the other planets around a central globe of 
fire. He imagined that the heavenly bodies in 
their revolutions produced musical notes, imper- 
ceptible to human ears, and music held a high 
place in his philosophy. He also taught the doc- 
trine of the transmigration of souls, which he 
undoubtedly had brought from Egypt. Pytha- 
goras and his disciples were strict vegetarians. 

153. The Sophists. — The Sophists were teachers 
of rhetoric and of the art of disputation. They 
travelled from town to town and, contrary to the 
custom of the Greek philosophers, took pay for 



196 ANCIENT HISTORY 

their teaching. Their teaching comprised every- 
thing that pertains to wise action and speech, 
especially the art of conducting cases before the 
citizen-juries, where every man had to plead his 
own case. There can be no doubt that their 
pupils often employed the art in making the un- 
just appear to be the just cause, but among their 
sophistic teachings were many essentials to suc- 
cess in life, and therefore they should not be 
condemned. 

154. The Epicureans and Stoics. — The Epicur- 
eans taught, in opposition to the Stoics, that 
pleasure is the highest good. They recommended 
virtue, but only for the attainment of pleasure, 
while the Stoics taught that virtue in itself was 
the end to be attained. Epicurus, the founder of 
the doctrine, had many followers in Greece, but 
his teachings were carried to the extreme by his 
pupils, whose entire philosophy was expressed in 
the proverb, " Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow 
we die." It was the natural result of this un- 
wholesome philosophy that Epicureanism did not 
produce one single great character. 

Socrates, although surpassed in intellect by both 
Plato and Aristotle, has the firmest hold upon the 
affections of the world. He taught the purest 
system of morals the world has yet known, with 
the exception of the teachings of Christ. He be- 
lieved himself restrained from entering upon any- 
thing that was inexpedient or wrong by a spirit, 
believed in the immortality of the soul and in a 



GREECE 197 

Supreme Being. However, he sometimes spoke 
slightingly of the temples and the gods, and this 
led to his persecution for blasphemy, and he was 
accused of corrupting the Athenian youth. The 
fact that Alcibiades had once been his pupil was 
brought against him and he was condemned to 
drink poison. He spent the last night in discuss- 
ing with his disciples upon the immortality of the 
soul. 

Plato, a pupil of Socrates, was of noble birth 
and devoted himself to philosophy, although his 
birth would have entitled him to a brilliant career 
in political affairs. After the death of his teacher 
he went into exile and returned to Athens after 
many vicissitudes in foreign lands. He then 
founded a school of philosophy in Athens. Al- 
though he attributes most of his philosophy to 
his master, Socrates, much of the philosophy 
taught by him is the work of his own intellect and 
genius. He believed not only in the immortality 
of the soul and a post -existence, but also in a pre- 
existence. In some of his teachings he nearly 
approaches Christianity. He says: "In order to 
become like God we must become holy, and just, 
and wise; and we ought to become like Him as 
far as this is possible." 

155. Aristotle. — As Plato had surpassed Soc- 
rates, so he in turn was excelled by Aristotle, the 
teacher of Alexander the Great. He delivered 
his lectures while walking about beneath the 
trees and porticos of the Lyceum at Athens, and 



I98 ANCIENT HISTORY 

the term of peripatetic, applied to his philosophy, 
is derived from this fact. His works on rhetoric, 
logic, morals, poetry, and politics were for cent- 
uries the text-books of all schools ; and his works 
were copied and commented upon by both Euro- 
pean and Asiatic scholars. His influence upon 
the development of philosophy was very great, 
especially during the century which preceded the 
establishment of modern scientific method and 
knowledge. 

156. Neo - Platonism. — Neo - Platonism was a 
blending of Greek philosophy and Oriental mys- 
ticism. It has been called the " despair of reason ' ' 
because it denied the ability of man to ever attain 
the highest knowledge through the intellect. 
Philo, the Jew, endeavoured to harmonise Hebrew 
doctrines with the teachings of Plato, and by the 
exercise of unlimited allegory he effected the 
reconciliation. He was the forerunner of Neo- 
Platonism. The greatest teacher of this school 
was Plotinus, who lived in the third century a.d. 
Neo-Platonism held that the human soul received 
revelations of divine truth in a state of trance, 
and it was chiefly a religious philosophy, teaching 
the nature of God and His relations to man. While 
the Neo-Platonists were trying to restore the old 
system of Greek philosophy, although on a modi- 
fied form, Christian faith was fast winning over 
the world to a new faith. The two systems came 
into direct antagonism, and for a time the issue of 
the contention between the Hellenic philosophers 



GREECE I99 

and the teachers of Christianity seemed doubtful. 
By the third century a.d., however, probably the 
majority of the people of the Roman Empire were 
disciples of the Christian faith. The Roman Em- 
peror, Constantine the Great, proclaimed Christ- 
ianity as the favoured religion of the Empire, but 
Julian the Apostate restored the Hellenic philo- 
sophy. After his death the hope of the re-estab- 
lishment of the modified philosophy of ancient 
Greece vanished for ever. Justinian forbade the 
Hellenic philosophers to teach their doctrines, and 
the Greek schools were closed by an imperial edict. 
157. The Social Position of Woman in Greece; 
Amusements; Slavery. — Woman was consigned 
to a narrow and inferior place in the Greek home. 
Her position was about between the woman of the 
Orient and of the West. In the Ionian cities she 
was not allowed to appear in public, or to meet in 
her own house the male friends of her husband. 
In the Dorian cities her position was somewhat 
higher, and she was accorded more freedom. The 
position assigned to the wife in the home had a 
disastrous influence upon morals. Woman could 
not exert the influence she casts over the modern 
home, and the men were led to intellectual and 
social sympathy outside of the family, among the 
Hetairae. Many among this class of women were 
refined and highly cultured, so, for instance, Thar- 
gelia of Miletus, who, in her relations with the 
King of Persia, exercised an influence in favour of 
her country; Aspasia, the friend of Pericles, to 



200 ANCIENT HIS TOR Y 

whom even Socrates and Anaxagoras have ac- 
knowledged indebtedness for lessons in oratory and 
philosophy; Lais, who conquered the cynical 
spirit of Diogenes; Phryne, whose charms saved 
her from a sentence of death and who was the 
model of Praxiteles for his Venus of Cnidus, and 
for the painting of Apelles of the goddess rising 
from the sea. However, the influence of this 
class of women was most harmful to social moral- 
ity, and to this degradation of woman in the 
Greek home can be ascribed the stain resting upon 
Greek civilisation. 

Chief Amusements. — The chief amusements of 
the Greeks were the religious festivals, the sacred 
games, and the theatre. Theatrical performances 
in the earlier days were given only during the fes- 
tivals in honour of Dionysus, and were attended 
by all classes. The women were allowed to wit- 
ness the tragedies only, the Hetairas excepted. In 
the theatre the spectators sat under the open sky, 
and the pieces followed one another in succession, 
the performances lasting from early morning until 
nightfall. The female parts in the plays were 
taken by men. The stage machinery and cos- 
tumes in the plays of the actors were ingenious 
and elaborate. The appliances of the modern 
stage, trap-doors, contrivances for the imitation 
of the storm, thunder, etc., were to a large extent 
included in the equipment of the Greek theatre. 
The influence of the theatre upon Greek life can 
be likened to that of the pulpit and the press upon 



GREECE 201 

modern society. The performances of the inci- 
dents in the lives of gods and the heroes helped to 
deepen the religious faith of the people. 

The Greeks cannot be said to have been glut- 
tonous. Although at their banquets every one 
was permitted to drink as much "as he could 
carry without a guide," drunkenness was al- 
ways regarded as a disgraceful thing. An im- 
portant difference between the Greek banquet 
and the modern is the confessed license of the 
former, in which behaviour was usual that would 
hardly be tolerated among persons claiming to 
be respectable. 

The banquet was partaken of by the guests in a 
reclining position, upon couches, or divans, ar- 
ranged about the table in the Oriental manner. 
After the usual courses had been served, a liba- 
tion was poured and a hymn sung to the praise of 
the gods, and then followed the most characteris- 
tic part of the Greek banquet, known as the 
"Symposium." The latter consisted of general 
conversation, songs, riddles, and generally pro- 
fessional singers and musicians, dancing girls, and 
jugglers were engaged to contribute to the merri- 
ment. The banquets usually lasted all night, and 
sometimes other bands of revellers broke in from 
the street and made themselves self-invited guests. 

Slavery. — Slavery is the dark side to Greek life. 
The proportion of slaves to the free population 
was astonishingly large. In Corinth and ^Egina 
there were ten slaves to one freeman; in Attica 



202 ANCIENT HISTORY 

four slaves to one freeman. To have to get along 
with anything less than half a dozen slaves was 
considered a real hardship. The Greek slaves, as 
a rule, were not treated harshly, and sometimes 
they were permitted to enjoy the confidence of 
their masters ; at Sparta, however, the lot of the 
slaves was very hard indeed, and in Athens they 
were employed in the silver mines. The civilisa- 
tion of Greece was the product of slavery, as the 
system relieving the citizen of all manual labours 
created a class characterised by refinement and 
culture. 




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ROME 
A — The History of Rome 

158. Greeks and Romans. — In the Greeks we 
have recognised a brilliant people ; in the Romans 
we shall find a sturdy people. While the former 
gave to the world some of its greatest achieve- 
ments in literature and arts, the Romans be- 
queathed to it ideals of politics and law. The 
Greeks were endowed with an intellect close to 
genius, the Romans were masterful, dominating, 
and sometimes domineering. 

159. Divisions of Italy. — Italy is separated from 
the rest of Europe on the north by the Alps, 
which form a barrier of great difficulty extending 
from the Gulf of Genoa to the head of the Adriatic. 
The peninsula itself is supported throughout its 
whole length, from Genoa to Reggio, by the Apen- 
nines, which, starting as a continuation of the 
Maritime Alps, follow the centre of the leg until 
they divide above the "instep," where the west- 
ern branch is deflected in an almost southerly 
course, the- mountains of Sicily being a continua- 
tion of the chain, while the eastern branch reaches 
into Apulia and ancient Calabria. The Alps, 

203 



204 ANCIENT HIS TOR Y 

Apennines, and the rivers which make their way 
down to the ocean from the central highlands, the 
Po, Arno, and Tiber being the most important, 
form the physical divisions of Italy. 

The low plain lying between the Apennines on 
the southern side, from the Gulf of Genoa to the 
Adriatic at Ariminum, and the Alps on the north- 
ern side, was not at first counted as a part of 
Italy. It was inhabited by settlers from Gaul, 
and therefore called Cisalpine Gaul. The whole 
region is drained by the river Po, the largest in 
Italy, and is now known as Lombardy. On the 
Gulf of- Genoa, south of the dividing line formed 
by the river Po and the Rhone, was Liguria. 
Venetia lay on the Adriatic, north of the Po. 
South of Liguria was Etruria, enclosed between 
the rivers Arno and Tiber and the Tuscan sea. 
Farther south of Etruria and west of the Apen- 
nines were Latium, Campania, Lucania, and 
Bruttium; east of the Apennines lay Umbria, 
Picenum, Samnium, Apulia, and Calabria, on the 
Gulf of Tarentum. 

1 60. Early Inhabitants. — The early inhabitants 
of Italy belonged to the Italian branch of Aryan 
stock. There were two important branches of 
the Italians, namely, the Latin and the Umbro- 
Sabelian. The Latins occupied a limited territory 
south of the Tiber, while the Umbro-Sabelian 
branch embraced a large number of nations 
spread throughout the peninsula. Some of these 
were: the Umbrians, Picentes, Sabines, Samnites, 



HOME 205 

and Lucanians, the Samnites being the most im- 
portant. Besides these nations there were others 
of foreign stock scattered in various parts of Italy. 
Some of them were the earlier inhabitants pushed 
into the corners of the peninsula at the time the 
Italians took possession, others were invaders of 
a later date. The earlier inhabitants were the 
Japygians, in Calabria, then the heel, now the toe 
of Italy, the Venetians in the north-east, the 
Ligurians in the north-west. The intruding na- 
tions were the Etruscans, the Gauls, and the 
Greeks. The Etruscans wrenched the country 
known by their name, Etruria, from the Um- 
brians, whom they crowded back to the east of 
the Apennines. The Gauls were of Celtic race, 
and they expelled the Etruscans from the valley 
of the Po which they occupied. The third in- 
truding nation was the Greeks, who established 
colonies on the southern and western coast of 
Italy, which part of the peninsula became known 
as Magna Graecia. 

The towns of Latium formed a confederacy 
which at first consisted of thirty towns. In time 
the weaker of the towns were conquered by the 
stronger, and when historical times are reached 
we find only about ten or twelve independent 
towns. The most important of the towns of 
Latium was Alba Longa, but it lost its place of 
pre-eminence to Rome, the stronghold of the 
Ramnes. According to tradition, Rome was 
founded in the year 753 B.C., and the town was 



206 ANCIENT HISTORY 

established as an outpost against the Etruscans. 
The city was situated on a group of low hills on 
the left bank of the Tiber. At first the town 
proper covered only the top of Palatine Hill, 
but it grew to include within its limit the famed 
"Seven Hills of Rome." The original town was 
called "Roma Quadrata," because of the shape of 
its walls. The traces of ancient buildings found on 
the different hills indicate that at first there was 
a separate settlement on each, surrounded by a 
rude wall. Gradually these distinct settlements 
were fused into a single city, and the festival of 
the Septimontium was in commemoration of the 
union of the separate towns. 

161. Early Rome. — The Roman people were 
divided into three tribes — the Ramnes, Tities, and 
Luceres — and into thirty curias. The three tribes 
probably represented a primitive clan division, 
older than Rome itself. There were ten curias in 
each tribe, and each consisted of a number of 
clans, gentes, each of the gentes again comprising 
a number of families. The families were under 
the authority of patresfamilias, who had absolute 
power over their wives and children, even having 
the right to put them to death. The members of 
the families were called patricians, sons of the 
fathers, and none but the patricians could have 
any share in the government. The Romans were 
governed by kings, who were supreme in power, 
not being hampered by any written laws. They 
were the chief priests of the people, their judges, 



ROME 207 

as well as their commanders in time of war. The 
patresfamilias formed the Senate, which served as 
a council to the king. The members of the Senate 
were called patres. Besides the Senate there was 
an assembly in which each citizen capable of 
bearing arms had a vote, whether he was a pater- 
familias or not. However, the vote was not 
taken of the people as a whole, but by curiae, and 
the majority of the curiae decided the question at 
issue. This assembly was called Comitia Curiata. 
Later, the Senate consisted of three hundred mem- 
bers appointed by the king. 

162. Classes of Society. — -The two important 
classes were the patricians and the plebeians. 
The patricians were the members of the three 
original tribes, and formed the ruling body. The 
plebeians were a subordinate class who, although 
they enjoyed the name of Roman citizens, were 
freeholders, and had the rights of property and 
trade, were excluded from a share in the govern- 
ment and from the intermarriage with the pa- 
tricians. A large number of these plebeians were 
wealthy and prosperous farmers. The early his- 
tory of Rome is, in the main, a narrative of the 
rebellion of these plebeians against the patricians, 
which, for a time, threatened the state with dis- 
solution and was brought to an end only by con- 
cessions on the part of the patricians. Besides 
the two classes mentioned there were the clients 
and the slaves. The clients can be described as 
hereditary dependents attached to certain families 



208 ANCIENT HISTORY 

of patricians. Each patrician had a number, of 
which he was called the patron. He was bound to 
specially watch over their interests and to act as 
their legal protector, for which, in return, they 
paid him dues and services. The slaves were the 
captives taken in war. At first their number was 
small, but it increased with the number of con- 
quests of the Romans, and then became so num- 
erous that more than once they turned upon their 
masters in open rebellion, which endangered the 
safety of the state. 

163. Legends. — The JEneid of Virgil is based on 
the Roman tradition that ^Eneas, after the fall 
of Troy, settled in Latium and became the an- 
cestor of the Roman people. The first settlement 
was at Lavinium. Later they removed to Alba 
Longa, ruled by the king Numitor. At first 
Numitor was kept from the throne by his younger 
brother Amulius, who brought it about that the 
daughter of Numitor, Rhea Silvia, was made a 
vestal virgin. Thus he hoped to deprive the 
father of a succession to the throne, which would 
remain in the family of Amulius. As tradition 
has it, Rhea Silvia was loved by the god Mars, 
and by him she had twins, Romulus and Remus. 
Amulius ordered them to be exposed to die, but 
they were nursed by a she-wolf and adopted by 
the shepherd Faustulus. Remus was taken pris- 
oner in a fight between herdsmen, and when 
Romulus attempted to rescue him a conflict en- 
sued, in which their parentage was revealed to 



ROME 209 

Remus and Romulus. Amulius was killed and 
Numitor restored to the throne. When the two 
brothers had grown up they decided to build a 
city for themselves. Remus mocked the lowness 
of the walls Romulus had built and was killed by 
his brother. In order to populate the new town, 
Romulus opened a refuge and soon robbers and 
fugitives of all kinds were made citizens by him. 
There was a lack of women, and when the Sabines 
refused to permit their daughters to marry any of 
the citizens of Rome, Romulus invited them with 
their women to a festival, and during the games 
each Roman carried off a Sabine woman to be his 
wife. A war was the result, and it was ended 
only upon the pleading of the Sabine wives of 
the Romans. Sabines and Romans now joined 
hands, and Titus Tatius, King of the Sabines, 
ruled with Romulus. After the death of Romu- 
lus, a Sabine, Numa Pompilius, was chosen King 
of Rome. Numa Pompilius reigned for nearly 
forty years and became the lawgiver of the city. 
His successor, Tullus Hostilius, greatly extended 
the power of the city by the force of arms. His 
first war was with Alba. In this war occurred 
the fight between the three brothers from each 
warring side, the Romans Horatii, from Alba, the 
Curatii. After two of the Horatii had been slain, 
the third succeeded in wounding and separating 
the brothers and killed them one by one. How- 
ever, his sister loved one of the Curatii, and upon 
his return he killed her because she upbraided him 



2IO ANCIENT HISTORY 

for the murder of her lover. He was tried and 
sentenced to death, but the Popular Assembly 
decided in his favour. After Hostilius, Ancus 
Martius succeeded to the throne, and he con- 
quered some of the Latin people who still re- 
tained their independence. He was followed by 
the three Tarquins, Lucius Tarquinius Priscus, 
Servius Tullius, and Lucius Tarquinius Superbus. 
The rule of the Tarquins is marked by the sub- 
jection of the balance of Latium to Roman power 
and the construction of great public works. Dur- 
ing their reign the exclusive privileges of the 
patricians were curtailed. 

164. Religion. — The religion of the Romans was 
polytheism, but it differed widely not only from 
that of Asiatic nations, but also from that of the 
Greeks. It was worship of the powers of nature, 
but while other nations tried to work out a philo- 
sophical system of religion, and speculated on the 
nature and attributes of their gods, the Romans 
never imagined their gods in the form of human 
beings, but looked upon them as abstract powers. 
In the earlier times they had no statues of their 
gods, but worshipped them in symbolic form. 
Before the Romans got acquainted with the 
Greeks they had a very imperfect mythology, and 
as a consequence there are no myths of genuine 
Roman growth, as even the legend of the birth of 
Romulus was imported from Greece. The first 
representations of the gods in human form were 
introduced by the Etruscans, who had borrowed 



ROME 2 1 1 

them from the Greeks of the Italian peninsula. 
This was the beginning of the introduction of the 
whole Greek system of mythology, which, together 
with all their myths, was transplanted to round 
out the unimaginative character of the Roman 
religion. Thus Zeus was identical with Jupiter, 
Hera with Juno, Athene with Minerva, Ares with 
Mars. The Sabine Romans had their own god of 
war, Quirinus. In the performance of their re- 
ligious duties the Romans were very scrupulous, 
and although the eastern fasts, washings, and 
rules about clean and unclean animals were not 
part of their religion, they had a great number of 
religious ceremonies, prayers, vows, offerings, etc., 
which all had to be observed as of vital import- 
ance. It may be said that the religion of Rome 
was part of their legal system, as all the duties of 
man, and the fines attending the transgressions of 
the rules of religion were minutely laid down. 

All nations of antiquity had their own peculiar 
methods of consulting the gods. The Greeks had 
their oracles and dreams, the Chaldasans consulted 
the stars, while the Romans believed unusual 
natural phenomena to be the special revelations 
of the will of the gods. Earthquakes, thunder 
and lightning, eclipses, meteoric appearances of 
unexplained character or terrifying effect, any 
kind of abnormal formation in animal or man, all 
these helped to awaken in the people the supersti- 
tious fear and were the causes of inquiries of the 
priesthood, or called for expiatory sacrifices and 



212 ANCIENT HISTORY 

services. No act of importance, whether in pri- 
vate or public life, was undertaken without first 
consulting the will of the gods. No election w T as 
held, no trial, no legislative vote could be taken, 
before the assent of the gods had been obtained. 
The gods never refused an answer to the inquiries 
made by the people; they sent their "auspices" 
through the interposition of the "augurs," a 
board whose duty it was to interpret the signs 
sent by the gods to the king or the people. The 
king was the chief priest of the city, assisted by a 
board of "pontiffs." The priests in Rome inter- 
preted the religious law, but were not permitted 
to enforce it, as the)'' were entirely subordinate to 
the civil magistrates and their principle duty was 
to serve the state. They did not form a special 
caste as the priests of India and Egypt, but were 
elected from the body of citizens for life terms, 
the chief pontiff as a rule being a man of mark in 
political life. Every private citizen could employ 
the augurs and consult the gods for his own guid- 
ance, but the magistrates alone could act on the 
part of the whole people and consult the gods 
publicly. This was done in the templum. The 
augur divided the sky above him with his staff 
into four quarters, and then watched for the ap- 
pearance of the sacred birds sent by Jupiter. Their 
appearance was pronounced either favourable or 
unfavourable, according to whether they appeared 
in one or the other of the sections the augur had 
indicated. This system of taking the auspices 



ROME 2 I 3 

lasted in Rome until the ancient faith was over- 
thrown by Christianity. While at first it was 
animated by the real spirit of faith, in later years 
it became a mere formality, and the augurs an- 
nounced as the will of the gods just what they 
were expected to announce, and adapted the tak- 
ing of the auspices to the circumstances attending 
each case. 

165. The Early Roman Republic. — After the 
monarchy was abolished, the people elected in 
place of the king two consuls. They were the 
chief magistrates of the republic, and were chosen 
annually in the Campus Martius. At first they 
were both elected from the patricians or nobles, 
but later the people obtained the privilege of 
electing one of the consuls, and sometimes both 
were elected from the plebeians. With the con- 
suls rested all the power that had been vested 
in the king, with the exception of some priestly 
functions. Each consul in public was attended by 
twelve lictors, who bore axes bound in a bundle 
of rods, to indicate the power of the consul to flog 
and to inflict the penalty of death. Within the 
limits of the city, however, the axes had to be 
removed by them, which was done to acknow- 
ledge the supreme power of the public assembly 
regarding the death penalty. After the estab- 
lishment of the empire, the office of consul was 
retained and was assumed by some of the em- 
perors. It was stripped of all power, however, 
and only served as a mark of distinction to the 



214 ANCIENT HISTORY 

occupant of the office. It was abandoned in the 
sixth century. 

166. Secession of the Plebeians. — As soon as the 
patricians had heard of the death of Tarquinius, 
who had been exiled with his entire family in 509 
b.c, they began to oppress the plebeians. They 
misused the needs of the commons, lent them 
money on hard terms, impoverished them, and 
relentlessly treated their insolvent debtors as 
slaves and drove their families from their homesr 
The plebeians could bear the yoke no longer, and 
in 494 b.c. they rose in a body and left Rome, 
encamping like a hostile army on a hill beyond 
the river Anio, a few miles from the gates of 
Rome. It was their intention to sever their con- 
nections with their native city and to form a city 
of their own. The patricians were unable to re- 
duce them by force and, seeing that without the 
plebeians they themselves became utterly help- 
less and exposed to the enemies, an embassy was 
sent to treat with the plebeians. The emissaries, 
among whom Valerius and Menenius deserve spe- 
cial mention, finally persuaded the plebeians to 
return to the city, and they arranged terms fav- 
ourable to the plebeians. The debts of the poor 
were to be cancelled, and those held as slaves 
were to be set free. Two magistrates were to be 
elected from the plebeians, to protect them 
against any injustice of the patricians. The num- 
ber of these magistrates was soon increased to ten. 
They were called Tribuni Plebis, and were empow- 



ROME 2 I 5 

ered to act as the special protectors of the people. 
The right of intercession already enjoyed by the 
patrician tribunes was extended to them and they 
were declared sacrosancti. The compromise thus 
affected was called the "Lex Sacrata," and the 
hill on which the plebeians had encamped retained 
the name of "Mons Sacer." 

167. Coriolanus. — That the tribunes cared for 
the rights of the people can be illustrated by the 
tradition about Coriolanus. During the famine at 
Rome the King of Syracuse sent a large supply of 
grain to the capital for distribution. Coriolanus 
proposed that none of the grain should be given 
to the plebeians, except upon condition that they 
give up their tribunes. The tribunes at once 
summoned him before the assembly, and the feel- 
ing against him became so strong that Coriolanus 
was obliged to flee from Rome. He entered into 
an alliance with the Volscians, and it was only 
after his own mother had gone out to plead with 
him that he could be persuaded to withdraw the 
Volscian army. The people then demanded that 
a code of laws be written, and a commission was 
sent to study the laws and customs of the Greeks. 
After the return of this embassy the patricians 
gave up their consuls and the plebeians their 
tribunes. 

168. The Tables of Laws; the Decemvirs. — A 
board of ten magistrates was appointed with full 
powers of government, and they were to draw up 
a set of laws for the Romans. At the end of one 



2 1 6 ANCIENT HISTOR Y 

year the labours of the decemvirs were not fin- 
ished, and a second decemvirate was elected to 
complete the work. The code of laws was written 
on twelve tablets and fastened to the rostra in 
the forum. The "laws of the twelve tablets" 
formed the basis of all legislation for many cent- 
uries, and the youth of Rome were required to 
learn them by heart. The first decemvirs had 
used their power with justice. The second board, 
under Appius Claudius, the only member of the 
first board who had been re-elected, began a 
systematic oppression of the plebeians, which led 
to their second secession to the Mons Sacer. The 
Senate and the patriarchs, left behind in Rome, 
compelled the decemvirs to resign and restored 
the consular government. The sacred laws were 
re-enacted and the tribuneship again established. 
Appius Claudius was imprisoned and, fearing pun- 
ishment, committed suicide. Now commenced a 
long struggle between the patricians and the ple- 
beians, in which the latter endeavoured to gain 
admission to the consulship. This finally re- 
sulted in a compromise, which practically meant 
for the plebeians the gaining of the ofnce they 
clamoured for, but the name was changed to 
" Military Tribunes, with consular powers. " After 
the admission of the plebs to the consulship, or its 
equivalent, the patricians commenced to strip the 
consuls of their power, in order to rob the plebeians 
of the fruits of their victory. They took from the 
consuls some of their most distinctive powers and 



ROME 217 

conferred them upon the censors, who again were 
elected from among the patricians. The military 
tribunes were established in 444 B.C., and in the 
same year is placed the election of the first cen- 
sors. About one hundred years later, in 351 b.c, 
the plebeians gained the right to hold the office 
of censor also, and from 351 to 300 b.c they 
gained admission to the dictatorship, prsetorship, 
the College of Augurs and Pontiffs. 

169. Cincinnatus. — Lucius Quinctius Cincinna- 
tus was a legendary hero, born about 520 b.c. 
During the struggles of the two orders in Rome 
the enemies of the state took advantage of the 
internal dissensions, and in 458 b.c the yEquians 
marched against Rome and surrounded the Roman 
army under Minucius in a defile of Mount Algidus. 

There was great terror in Rome when the news 
became known. The Senate at once appointed 
Cincinnatus dictator of Rome. As tradition has 
it, the ambassadors who earned to him the news 
of his appointment found him in the field, digging. 
Cincinnatus accepted the office and gained a com- 
plete victory over the ^Equians. He resigned the 
dictatorship after a lapse of only sixteen days and 
again retired to his farm. At the age of eighty, 
in 439, Cincinnatus was again appointed dictator 
to oppose the traitor Melius, who was defeated 
and slain. 

170. Invasion of the Gauls. — In 391 B.C. the 
Gauls appeared before Clusium and from there 
marched against Rome. The Romans were not 



21 8 ANCIENT HISTORY 

taken unawares, and met them with an army- 
numbering about 40,000 men, while the Gauls had 
a force of about 70,000. On the 18th of July, 
390 B.C., the two armies clashed near the small 
river Allia, about ten miles from Rome. The 
battle was short, sharp, and decisive. The Ro- 
mans were seized with terror at the onset of the 
barbarians, who drove the legions into panic by 
their fierce battle-cries and uncouth appearance. 
A consular tribune, Sulpicius, retreated with a 
part of the Roman force to Rome, while the 
greater part of the routed army fled to Veii, which 
became the refuge for the remnants of the legions. 
Three days after the battle the Gauls made their 
appearance before Rome, which the Romans had 
left without offering resistance. Only some old 
senators had stayed back, resolved to die rather 
than to survive the downfall of their country. 
The Gauls at first did not know what to think of 
the silent figures of the senators, sitting at the 
Forum, dressed in the robes of their office. A 
Gaul plucked one of the old men by the beard, 
and, receiving a blow on the head from the 
offended senator, he was convinced that they w T ere 
living men. Whereupon the Gauls slaughtered 
them in cold blood. Besides these senators a 
number of soldiers, under Marius Manlius, had re- 
mained behind and garrisoned the Capitol. Tra- 
dition tells of a young man, Pontius Cominius, 
who at night scaled the rock and reported to the 
besieged garrison that the Roman forces were 



ROME 219 

about to come to their rescue. The Gauls found 
his footsteps and followed in the same track, 
reaching the top on a dark night without being 
observed by the Roman sentinels. The defenders 
were awakened by the cackling of some geese, 
which the soldiers had spared out of respect to 
Juno, to whom these birds were sacred. The 
cackling awakened Manlius, who immediately 
gave the alarm, and the Gauls were hurled from 
the rocks and the citadel saved. The siege con- 
tinued, however, and, both parties beginning to 
feel the want of provisions, the leader of the 
Gauls, Brennus, agreed to retire upon the pay- 
ment of a large sum of money. The Roman com- 
missioners were just in the act of paying over the 
gold to the Gauls, when Brennus, in the insolence 
of victory, threw his sword into the balance as an 
answer to the complaint that the Gauls were using 
false weights, and exclaimed, "Woe to the con- 
quered!" Then suddenly appeared Camillus, 
who had been recalled from banishment and made 
the leader of the Roman forces, and declared that 
the arrangement was null and void, having been 
made without the consent of the dictator. He 
drove the Gauls off the Forum and out of the city. 
On the next day he fought them outside the gates 
and routed them, Brennus falling under the sword 
of the conqueror, who shouted into his ears the 
terrible words he had used, "Woe to the con- 
quered ! ' ' Rome was thus delivered from her foes, 
not by the payment of gold, but by the sword. 



220 ANCIENT HISTORY 

171. The Samnite Wars. — The most formidable 
competitors of the Romans for the supremacy of 
Italy were the Samnites, and the former gained 
the upper hand after having fought three wars 
with the latter. The first lasted from 343 to 
341 b.c, and was left unfinished by the Romans, 
as they were compelled to turn their army against 
a revolt of some of their allies in Latium. After 
the close of the insurrection, the Romans again 
resumed the war against the Samnites, the second 
and third wars lasting from 326 to 290 B.C. In 
the second war the Samnites suffered defeat, but 
they now formed an alliance with the Etruscans, 
Gauls, Umbrians, and other nations, and raised a 
large army. The Romans defeated the army of 
the allied nations in the battle at Sentinum, in 
295 b.c, and one by one the states that had joined 
the alliance were chastised and the Samnites 
compelled to acknowledge the supremacy of the 
Romans. In the course of the next few years 
almost all of the Greek cities of Southern Italy, 
excepting Tarentum, came under the power of 
Rome. 

172. War with Pyrrhus. — Tarentum having 
turned to Greece for aid in the war which Rome 
had declared against them because of the capture 
of some Roman vessels, Pyrrhus, King of Epirus, 
sailed for Italy with an army of Greek mercenaries 
and twenty war elephants. He drilled the Taren- 
tines and then faced the Romans. The first battle 
was at Heraclea, in 280 b.c It was won by 



ROME 221 

Pyrrhus, the Romans having taken to flight at 
the sight of the elephants. The losses of Pyrrhus 
were very heavy, and he is said to have exclaimed, 
"Another such victory, and I must return to 
Epirus alone." He endeavoured to arrange 
terms of peace with the Romans, but failed, and 
his attempts at bribery were not more successful. 
After a second victory, as disastrous as the first, 
Pyrrhus crossed over to Sicily, but after some few 
successes and as many reverses he returned to 
Italy. He again engaged the Romans, but was 
defeated at the battle of Beneventum, 274 B.C., 
and after placing a garrison to occupy Tarentum, 
set sail for Greece. Tarentum surrendered to the 
Romans soon after he had left, and Rome became 
the supreme power in Italy. 

173. Carthage. — - The struggle between Greece 
and Persia had been for world supremacy ; it was 
between a power rich and old in authority and a 
young power of untried strength. We now pass 
to the account of the desperate duel between two 
youthful powers, each wealthy, confident, and de- 
termined to rule the world ; again the world is 
preserved from an Asiatic civilisation — which 
Carthage really represented. 

Dido, also called Elissa, daughter of the Tyrian 
king Belus, is the reputed founder of Carthage. 
Dido's husband, Acerbas, an immensely wealthy 
priest of Hercules, was murdered by Pygmalion, 
her brother, who coveted the treasures of Acerbas. 
Dido secretly sailed from Tyre with the treasures, 



222 ANCIENT HIS TOR Y 

accompanied by some Tyrian nobles. She first 
went to Cyprus, where she carried off eighty 
maidens to provide the emigrants with wives, and 
then crossed over to Africa. Here she purchased 
as much land as could be covered by a bull's 
hide ; but she cut up the hide into thin strips and 
surrounded with them a spot on which she built 
a citadel called Byrsa. Around this fort the city 
of Carthage arose, and soon became a powerful 
and flourishing place. The story of Dido was in- 
serted into the JEneid by Virgil, who made her a 
contemporary of ^neas, although there is an in- 
terval of three hundred years between the fall of 
Troy and the foundation of Carthage, in 853 b.c. 
Virgil's story is an embellishment of the legend. 
In the JEneid Dido falls in love with ^Eneas upon 
his arrival in Africa, and when he leaves her to 
seek the new home which the gods had promised 
him, Dido destroys herself on a funeral pyre with 
the sword ^Eneas had left in her chamber. Apart 
from the legend, Carthage is thought to have had 
its beginning as a trading-post established by the 
Phoenicians in the latter part of the ninth century 
b.c. The location of the colony was very favour- 
able, and it rose in importance when Phoenicia's 
fame was vanishing, and in course of time other 
Phoenician cities submitted to the supremacy of 
Carthage. Over three hundred towns came to be 
her tributaries, rendering Carthage one of the 
richest cities in the world. The shores of the 
western Mediterranean were dotted with posses- 



ROME 223 

sions of Carthage, and by the time Rome had 
attained the supremacy in Italy, Carthage was 
mistress of Sardinia, Corsica, the Balearic Islands, 
Southern Spain, many smaller islands, and the 
entire northern coast of Africa, from the Greater 
Syrtus to the Pillars of Hercules. 

174. Religion and Character. — The religion of 
Carthage was that of the mother country, Phoe- 
nicia. Especial mention is made of the cruel rites 
of Moloch, to whom they offered human sacrifices ; 
and also of the worship of Astarte. While the 
Romans were severe and inflexible of character, 
the Carthaginians were cruel by nature. The 
punishments were very severe, and the usual 
mode of inflicting death was by crucifixion. The 
chief occupations of the people were commerce 
and agriculture. The revenues of the state were 
derived from the subject provinces, and the army 
was composed of mercenaries from the neighbour- 
ing country, among whom the Numidian cavalry 
were especially distinguished. The general tone 
of social morality appears to have been high. 
There was a censorship of public morals, under the 
care of the Gerusia. All the magistrates were re- 
quired, during their term of office, to abstain from 
wine, and they received no pay for their services 
to the state. 

175. Resources of Rome and Carthage. — Rome 
and Carthage were nearly evenly matched in 
strength. Although the Romans had no navy 
worthy of mention, their army was superior 



224 ANCIENT HISTORY 

to that of the Carthaginians, because it was 
composed of Roman citizens, while the army of 
Carthage was made up of mercenaries. The 
Carthaginians had the best-equipped fleet of war- 
galleys, but the advantage was offset by their 
possessions being widely scattered and requiring 
a naval force for purposes of defence, while the 
Roman country was compact and easily defended. 
The subjects of Carthage were of many races, 
spoke different languages, and were bound by no 
tie which they would regret to break at the first 
opportunity; the Romans, on the other hand, 
were closely related in race, language, and customs 
to their dependencies and allies, who remained 
loyal to them during the long struggle between 
the rivals. 

176. The First Punic War (264-241 B.C.). — At 
the beginning of the first Punic war the Cartha- 
ginians were masters of nearly all of the island of 
Sicily, with the exception of a narrow strip on the 
eastern coast, which was under the city of Syr- 
acuse. The Romans crossed over to Sicily on a 
pretext to give aid to some friends, and the Syr- 
acusans and Carthaginians joined their forces 
against the intruders. The allies were defeated by 
the Romans, and many of the cities of Sicily ac- 
knowledged the supremacy of Rome. The king 
of Syracuse, seeing the hopelessness of the struggle 
against the Romans, formed an alliance with 
them and remained their friend. The Cartha- 
ginians now commenced a series of raids on the 



ROME 22 5 

coast towns of Sicily and even of Italy, devastat- 
ing the land and sailing away with their, plunder. 
The Romans had no navy to ward off these at- 
tacks, and they determined to build a fleet of 
war-galleys. A Carthaginian galley, wrecked off 
the coast of Southern Italy, served as the model, 
and it is said that in the short space of sixty days 
the Romans finished the building of one hundred 
and twenty vessels. They trained their soldiers 
in the duties of sailors by practising rowing, sitting 
on benches built on the land, while the ships were 
building. The command of this fleet was at first 
entrusted to Scipio, who was defeated by the Car- 
thaginians off Lipara. Duillius, the other consul, 
was then entrusted with the command. He saw 
the difficulties under which the clumsy ships were 
labouring, and therefore devised the well-known 
grappling irons to draw the ships of the enemy 
toward his, and thus to change the sea fight to a 
land fight. By this means he gained a splendid 
victory over the Carthaginian fleet near Mylse. 
He then continued the war and relieved Egesta, 
in Sicily, and took Macella by assault. On his 
return to Rome, Duillius celebrated a splendid 
triumph for the first naval victory of the Romans, 
and a column was erected in the Forum to per- 
petuate his memory. He was further honoured 
by being permitted, whenever returning at night 
from a banquet, to be accompanied by a torch 
and a flute-player. 

177. Regulus, — The Romans were now deter- 



226 ANCIENT HISTORY 

mined to push the war with utmost vigour. At- 
tilius Regulus, a Roman consul, with Manlius 
Vulso Longus, defeated the Carthaginian fleet, 
and afterward landed in Africa with a large force. 
They met with great success, and when Manlius 
returned to Rome with one half of the army, 
Regulus remained in Africa with the other half 
and prosecuted the war with utmost vigour. The 
generals of the Carthaginian army, Hasdrubal, 
Bostar, and Hamilcar, instead of awaiting the 
attack of the Romans on the plains, where their 
cavalry and elephants would have given them the 
advantage, led the army into the mountains, 
where they were crushingly defeated by Regulus. 
The Carthaginian army retired into Carthage, and 
Regulus took a number of towns in quick succes- 
sion, among others Tunis, only twenty miles from 
the capital. The Carthaginians were in despair 
and sued for peace. The terms of Regulus 
were so harsh, however, that they rejected them 
and resolved to fight to the last. Aid came to 
them from an unexpected quarter. Among the 
Greek mercenaries, lately arrived from Greece 
there was a Lacedaemonian named Xanthippus. 
He convinced the Carthaginians that their de- 
feat was not due to the superiority of the Roman 
army, but to the incapacity of their generals. He 
inspired them with such confidence that they 
placed him at the head of their troops. Xanthip- 
pus marched out with his army and boldly faced 
the Romans in the open, relying on the cavalry 



ROME 22 J 

and the elephants as his main strength. In the 
battle which ensued Regulus was defeated with 
great losses, and, with five hundred others, was 
taken prisoner in 255 b.c. Now follows the 
story, discredited by modern historians, of his five 
years' captivity and the embassy to Rome to solicit 
peace, instead of which he is said to have advised 
the Romans to continue the war, and of his return 
to Carthage to a death of horrible torture. It is 
believed that this story was invented in order to 
excuse the cruelties perpetrated by the family of 
Regulus on some Carthaginian prisoners com- 
mitted to their custody. 

178. End of the War.— After the defeat of 
Regulus the Romans built a fleet to carry the 
remnants of the army home, but it was destroyed 
in a storm off the coast of Sicily and over one 
hundred thousand men are said to have perished. 
A second fleet sent to Africa accomplished nothing 
of importance and on the return voyage was also 
almost destroyed off the coast of Italy. The 
war continued to be fought both on land and 
sea. The Romans were again defeated in the 
harbour of Drepanum, it is said, because Claudius 
attacked the Carthaginian fleet in defiance of the 
auguries. Thus the Romans had lost four fleets, 
three of which had been destroyed by storms, and 
they became fearful for the safety of their posses- 
sions. In 241 b.c they determined to make a 
renewed attack, and a fleet was built, this time 
entirely from private contributions. The consul 



228 ANCIENT HISTORY 

Catulus was entrusted with the command, and he 
defeated the Carthaginian fleet, under Hanno, off 
the ^Egates. After having lasted for twenty-four 
years the war was terminated by a peace, the 
terms of which required the Carthaginian to 
give up their claims to Sicily, to surrender all 
prisoners, and to pay a large indemnity (241 B.C.). 
179. The Second Punic War (218-201 B.C.). — 
Between the first and the second Punic wars 
there was an interval of twenty-three years, which 
welcome respite was used by both rivals to 
strengthen their armaments in preparation for a 
new struggle. The Romans organised the island 
of Sicily, with the exception of the lands belong- 
ing to Syracuse, as a province of Rome, estab- 
lishing a separate and settled government. Sicily 
was the first of the Roman provinces, which grew 
in numbers until they formed a perfect chain 
about the Mediterranean. Each province was 
governed by a magistrate sent out from Rome, 
and paid annual tributes. In 238 the Romans 
occupied Sardinia and Corsica, not heeding the 
protests of the Carthaginians, who were ordered 
by the Romans to desist from their military 
preparations which they had been carrying on to 
support a revolt in the island. As Rome threat- 
ened war, Carthage had to submit and even to pay 
a demanded fine. The provincial government 
was extended to Sardinia and Corsica. The Ro- 
mans then turned their attention to the Illyrian 
corsairs who were infesting the Adriatic and Ionian 



ROME 229 

waters, and succeeded in capturing several of 
their strongholds. They established a protect- 
orate over the Greek cities on the Adriatic, and 
laid the foundation of their supremacy in Mace- 
donia and Greece. 

180. The Gauls Defeated. — The Romans fur- 
ther strengthened the security of Italy by subju- 
gating the Boii and Insubres, tribes of the Gallic 
races, who had alarmed the whole of Italy by 
invading Etruria and penetrating Clusium. On 
their return northward their way was barred at 
Telamon by the Roman legions and they were 
totally defeated. The Romans then invaded Gal- 
lic territory, and in 222 B.C. all the tribes of the 
rich valley of the Po acknowledged the suprem- 
acy of Rome. Two colonies were founded to hold 
them in check, namely, Placentia and Cremona. 

181. The Truceless War. — Hamilcar Barca was 
appointed to the command of the Carthaginian 
forces in Sicily. After the defeat of the Cartha- 
ginians by Catulus, Hamilcar was entrusted with 
the mission to conclude the terms of peace with 
Rome. He returned to Carthage, where he had to 
carry on an arduous struggle with the revolting 
mercenaries and native tribes, and succeeded in 
re-establishing the power of Carthage after a 
three-years' contest, called the "truceless war." 
Hamilcar then formed the plan of establishing in 
Spain a new empire, not only to gain for Carthage 
a source of strength and wealth, but also to found 
a base from which at a subsequent period he 



230 ANCIENT HISTORY 

might renew the hostilities against Rome. Shortly 
after the close of the war with the mercenaries he 
crossed over to Spain and succeeded in obtaining 
possession of a considerable portion of the coun- 
try. After remaining in Spain nearly nine years, 
he fell in a battle against the Vettones in 228 B.C. 
He was succeeded in command by his son-in-law, 
Hasdrubal. 

182. Hannibal. — Hamilcar left three sons, Han- 
nibal, Hasdrubal, and Mago. Hannibal, perhaps 
the most illustrious general of antiquity, was born 
in 247 B.C. He was only nine years old when his 
father took him with him to Spain, and on this 
occasion made him swear eternal hostility to 
Rome. Although Hannibal was only a child, he 
never forgot the vow, and his life was one con- 
tinued struggle against the power and dominion of 
Rome. After the death of his father, he was 
appointed commander-in-chief of most of the 
military enterprises planned by Hasdrubal. After 
the assassination of Hasdrubal, in 221 B.C., Han- 
nibal was elected the leader of the army by an 
unanimous vote and was ratified by the Govern- 
ment at Carthage. No doubt Hannibal then al- 
ready was laying his plans for the conquest of 
Italy, but he first had to finish the work of his 
father and establish Carthaginian power more 
firmly in Spain. He subdued the entire country 
south of the Iberus, with the exception of Sagun- 
tum. The Romans, who had been jealously 
watching his progress in the peninsula, had en- 



ROME 231 

tered into an alliance with Saguntum, and when 
Hannibal laid siege to the town they ordered him 
to withdraw. Hannibal well knew when he at- 
tacked the place that his action would precipitate 
hostilities with Rome, but as he was anxious for 
a pretext to renew the conflict, he paid no atten- 
tion to the remonstrances of the Romans, con- 
tinued the siege, and took the town in 219 b.c. 
On the fall of Saguntum the Romans demanded 
that Hannibal be surrendered to them, but the 
Carthaginians refused and war was declared. Thus 
began the long and arduous struggle known as the 
second Punic war. 

183. Hannibal Crosses the Alps. — In the spring 
of 218 Hannibal commenced his march for Italy. 
He crossed the Pyrenees and marched along the 
southern coast of Gaul. After crossing the Rhone, 
he continued his march on the left bank of the 
river, then struck to the right and commenced his 
passage across the Alps. He probably crossed the 
Alps by the pass of the Little St. Bernard. While 
crossing, his army suffered greatly from the at- 
tacks of the mountaineers and from the difficulties 
of the road on account of the lateness of the 
season. The losses were very heavy, and when 
he at last emerged from the valley of Aosta into 
the plains of the Po, he had with him only about 
twenty thousand infantry soldiers and six thou- 
sand cavalrymen. A Roman army under Scipio 
opposed his march, and in the battle near the 
Ticinus the Romans were completely routed and 



232 ANCIENT HISTORY 

Scipio himself severely wounded. Scipio then 
withdrew to the Trebia, where he united his forces 
with those of the second consul, Sempronius 
Longus. On the Trebia another battle was fought, 
again with disastrous results for the Romans, 
who retreated and took refuge at Placentia. 
Early in 217 B.C., Hannibal descended into the 
marshes on the banks of the Arno and lost many 
horses during the march, and he himself lost the 
sight of one eye by an attack of ophthalmia. 
The consul Flaminius hastened to meet him, and 
a battle ensued on the lake Trasimenus, in which 
the Roman army was completely destroyed. 
Hannibal then marched through the Apennines 
into Picenum and into Apulia, where he spent the 
greater part of the summer. 

184. Fabius Cunctator. — The Romans now col- 
lected a fresh army and placed it under the com- 
mand of the dictator Fabius Maximus, called 
"Cunctator." Fabius prudently determined to 
avoid a general action, but to attempt only to 
harass and annoy the Carthaginians. By these 
measures he hoped to gain time for the raising of 
a new army, and although Hannibal tried by vari- 
ous means to induce him to offer battle, he stead- 
fastly refused to be drawn into an engagement. 
His policy enabled the Romans to make great 
preparations for the campaign of the next year, 

2l6 B.C. 

185. The Defeat of Cannae. — Early in the sum- 
mer of 216 b.c. the two new consuls, JEmilius 



ROME 233 

Paulus and Terentius Varro, marched into Apulia 
at the head of an army numbering nearly one 
hundred thousand men. To this army Hannibal 
gave battle on the plains on the right bank of the 
Aufidus, near Carinas, and the Roman army was 
again annihilated. It is said that forty or fifty 
thousand men were slain in the battle. The con- 
sul Paulus, both consuls of the preceding year, 
eighty senators, and a host of wealthy Romans, 
who constituted the cavalry, were among the 
fallen. The consul Varro escaped with a small 
number of horsemen to Venusia, and another 
small force made their way to Canusium; the 
rest were either killed, dispersed, or taken pris- 
oners. This victory was followed by the revolt 
of many of the cities and tribes of the south of 
Italy, and the Romans became panic-stricken, 
expecting that Hannibal would immediately 
march upon the capital. 

Although urged by the leader of his Numidian 
cavalry, Maharbal, to follow up his victory, Han- 
nibal did not think it prudent to attack Rome, 
and preferred to give battle in the open field. 

186. Hannibal Defeated. — In 216 B.C. Hanni- 
bal established himself at Capua, which had se- 
ceded from the Romans and espoused his side. 
In 212 b.c. he obtained possession of Tarentum, 
but in the following year lost Capua, and in 209 
b.c the Romans recovered Tarentum also. When 
planning his campaign against Italy, Hannibal 
had hoped that upon setting foot on Italian soil he 



234 ANCIENT HISTORY 

would receive aid from the allies of Rome, and 
that thus he could augment his forces. In this, 
however, he was grossly disappointed. No allies 
offered themselves, no auxiliaries joined them- 
selves to his ranks. After his victories on the 
Trebia and Trasimenus, he gathered some Gauls, 
and after the battle of Cannae some of the southern 
nations passed over to his side. Still most of the 
important places proved faithful to Rome, and 
while Hannibal no doubt received supplies and 
promises in the open country he was traversing, 
very few of the fortified places opened their gates 
to him, and he was engaged for years in subduing 
their resistance and then strengthening himself 
in the positions thus gained. He failed to take 
Cumae, defended by Sempronius Gracchus, and 
was twice repulsed before Nola, and the expected 
adhesion of all the Greek cities of Magna Grecia 
did not materialise. His experiment of what he 
could do with a single army had now been fully 
tried and, notwithstanding all his victories, it had 
signally failed. Rome was unsubdued and able 
to maintain the contest. Hannibal's forces were 
gradually weakening, and he now decided to 
maintain a defensive position, waiting for the 
arrival of his brother Hasdrubal, who, in 207 B.C., 
crossed the Alps, endeavouring to bring help to- 
him. His army was defeated and Hasdrubal 
himself slain on the Metaurus. This caused 
Hannibal to abandon all ideas of further offensive 
operations, and he retreated with his army into 



ROME 235 

Bruttium, where he maintained his position for 
nearly four years. In 203 he crossed over to 
Africa in order to oppose Scipio, and was com- 
pletely defeated in the battle of Zama in 202 

B.C. 

187. Scipio Africanus. — Cornelius Scipio Afri- 
canus was born in 234 b.c He fought in the 
battles of Ticinus and Cannae, and was one of the 
few survivors of the latter battle. He acquired 
at an early age the confidence and admiration of 
his countrymen. He believed himself a special 
favourite of the gods, and never engaged in any 
public or private business without first going to 
the Capitol, where he sat alone for some time, 
enjoying communications from the gods. The 
Roman people gave credit to his assertions and 
regarded him as being almost superior to the 
common race of men. He himself was no doubt 
sincere in his belief, which must have been deep- 
ened by the success which attended all his enter- 
prises. In 210 b.c, when the Romans decided to 
strengthen their army in Spain, they were con- 
templating the placing of the command in the 
hands of a proconsul. None of the experienced 
generals venturing to offer himself for the post, 
Scipio, who was twenty-four years of age, offered 
himself for the responsible office and was elected. 
His successes in Spain were rapid and striking, 
and he drove the Carthaginians out of the country 
in the short space of three years. In 206 b.c he 
returned to Rome, and was elected consul. In 



236 ANCIENT HISTORY 

the year following he wished to cross over to 
Africa, but the Senate refused to give consent 
and only granted him permission to go to Africa, 
without giving him the means for the raising of an 
army or a fleet. However, such was his influence 
that volunteers flocked to him from all sides, and 
in 203 b.c. he was able to start on his voyage. 
Success again was with him, and he defeated the 
Carthaginians and their allies. The Carthaginians 
then recalled Hannibal from Italy as the only 
hope of saving their country. 

188. The Close of the Second Punic War. — The 
long war was at last brought to a close by a battle 
fought near the city of Zama on the 19th of Octo- 
ber, 202 B.C., in which Scipio gained a brilliant 
victory over Hannibal. Carthage now had no 
alternative. but submission, and a treaty was con- 
cluded in 201 B.C. Hannibal then provoked the 
enmity of a powerful party at Carthage and. was 
forced to flee. He took refuge at the Court of 
Antiochus, who was then on the eve of a war 
with Rome. Antiochus did not listen to the coun- 
sels of Hannibal to carry the war to Italy, but 
awaited the Romans in Greece. After the defeat 
of Antiochus, in 190 b.c, the Romans demanded 
the surrender of Hannibal, but he foresaw the 
danger and escaped to the Court of Prusias of 
Bithynia. For some years he found there a safe 
asylum, but the Romans could not rest so long as 
he lived, and they finally sent Flaminus to demand 
the surrender of Hannibal. Hannibal, knowing 



ROME 237 

that flight was impossible, took poison in order to 
prevent falling into the hands of his enemies. 

189. Terms of Peace. — Spain, with the islands, 
was surrendered to Rome, and was made a pro- 
vince of Rome. Syphax, who had assisted the 
Carthaginians, was brought to Rome a prisoner, 
Masinissa was recognised as independent king of 
Numidia, and Carthage was compelled to give up 
all her war-galleys, except ten, and to pay a large 
indemnity. 

190. War with Macedonia. — In 213 B.C. the 
alliance between Philip of Macedon and Hanni- 
bal, and the threatened attack of Philip on Italy, 
forced Rome into war with Macedonia, although 
it remained a secondary object, the Romans con- 
tenting themselves with heading the coalition of 
the Greek states against Philip. In 205 b.c. they 
concluded a peace which left the position un- 
changed, but the Senate was ever after restless 
because of the ambitions of Philip. In the same 
year the latter set out to attach to his kingdom 
a part of the dominions of Egypt, which, after 
the death of Ptolemy Philopator, was ruled by a 
boy-king. Philip hoped to acquire the districts 
subject to Egypt on the coast of the ^Egean and 
the Greek islands before the Romans, who were 
then engaged in war with Carthage, could inter- 
fere with his plans. In 201 b.c Rome made 
peace with Carthage, and in 200 b.c. war was 
declared against the King of Macedonia on the 
pretext found in the invasion of the territory of 



238 ANCIENT HISTORY 

the Roman ally, Athens, by Macedonian troops. 
The army of Philip was defeated by the Romans 
under Quinctus Flaminius at Cynoscephake, and 
although he was permitted to retain his kingdom, 
it was reduced to second-rate importance, and the 
terms of peace did not permit the King of Mace- 
donia to wage war without the consent of Rome. 
Rome then turned her arms against Antiochus 
III. of Syria. Antiochus failed to profit by the 
advice of Hannibal, and his courage was broken 
after one single battle in Greece. He retreated to 
Asia, but the Romans sent an army under Scipio, 
the brother of the conqueror of Hannibal, to 
invade Asia Minor. A Roman fleet defeated 
the navy of Antiochus, and his army was routed 
at Magnesia in 190 b.c. The predominance of 
Roman influence was now secure throughout Asia 
Minor. In 168 b.c. Rome again declared war 
against Macedonia, where Perseus, the successor 
of Philip, was endeavouring to raise an army to 
free Macedonia and Greece from the influence and 
supremacy of Rome. The sympathy of the Greeks 
vanished with the appearance of the Roman 
legions, and Perseus was defeated at Pydna, in 
168 b.c, and taken as a prisoner to Italy, where 
he died a few years later. The provincial system 
of government was introduced into Macedonia, 
but it proved a failure, and in 146 b.c Macedonia 
was declared a Roman province, with a Roman 
magistrate at its head. 

191. The Battle of Cynoscephalas. — The battle of 



ROME 239 

Cynoscephalce was fought in 196 B.C., between 
the Romans and the army of Philip of Macedon. 
In this battle Philip disposed the greater part of 
his forces in two phalanxes, each consisting of 
eight thousand men. The first broke through the 
lines of the legions, but they closed in again with- 
out material losses. The second was attacked by 
the Romans while they were forming, and were 
scattered, the Romans thus demonstrating the 
superiority of their way of righting to the Mace- 
donians, whose phalanx proved too unwieldy. 

192. The Battle of Magnesia. — The battle of 
Magnesia was fought between the Romans and 
Antiochus III. of Syria in 190 b.c. Antiochus 
wanted to secure for himself the possessions of the 
Ptolemies in Asia Minor and in Thrace, which 
Philip had claimed. After the defeat of Philip 
these lands had been pronounced free and inde- 
pendent by the Romans. In 192 Antiochus 
crossed the ^gean, but failed to act promptly, as 
Hannibal had advised him to do, and lost much 
time in useless attacks on small Thessalian towns. 
In 191 b.c. the consul Glabrio landed at the head 
of an imposing Roman force and defeated Antio- 
chus at Thermopylae. Antiochus lost his courage 
after this defeat and hurriedly returned to Asia, 
leaving his allies, the ^Etolians, to oppose the 
Romans single-handed. In 190 b.c the Romans 
sent the brother of the conqueror of Hannibal, 
Scipio, at the head of the legions into Asia Minor. 
At Magnesia, near Mount Sipylus, in Lydia, 



24O ANCIENT HISTORY 

Scipio met the forces of Antiochus, and the army 
of the great king was totally defeated in the 
battle. 

193. Terms of Peace. — The terms for peace with 
Philip of Macedon, as arranged after the battle 
of Cynoscephalas, left Philip in possession of his 
kingdom, but it was degraded to the rank of a 
second-rate power. He was deprived of all pos- 
sessions in Greece, Thrace, and Asia Minor, and 
was forbidden to wage war without the consent of 
the Romans. Macedonia thus ceased to be for- 
midable as an opponent, but Rome did not take 
possession of Macedonia itself, in order to retain 
the services of Philip, who now became an ally 
and friend of the Romans. Macedonia was to be 
an effective barrier against Thrace. Philip was 
badly rewarded for his loyalty to Rome, as the 
peace of Magnesia only brought upon him fresh 
humiliations, although he had aided Rome in 
many ways. After the battle of Magnesia, An- 
tiochus was compelled to sue for peace, which was 
granted in 188 B.C., on condition of his ceding all 
his possessions east of Mount Taurus, the giving 
up of all his elephants and warships, the paying 
of a large indemnity, and the surrendering of the 
enemies of Rome, this last clause being aimed at 
Hannibal. However, Antiochus allowed Hanni- 
bal to escape. It is said that in order to be able 
to pay the indemnity demanded by the Romans, 
Antiochus attacked the temple in Elymais and 
was there killed by the people. 



ROME 24I 

194. Defeat of Perseus. — Immediately after his 
accession to the throne of Macedonia, as the suc- 
cessor of Philip, Perseus began to make prepara- 
tions for war with the Romans, which he knew to 
be inevitable. In 171 B.C., seven years later, the 
war broke out, but no action of any importance 
was fought until the last year of the war, 168 B.C. 
Perseus weakened his forces by an ill-timed av- 
arice, refusing to advance a sum of money to 
Eumenes, the king of Pergamus, who thus far 
had been his faithful ally, but who withdrew his 
forces after the refusal of the payment of the 
money. The same niggardliness deprived him of 
the services of twenty thousand mercenaries, who 
had actually marched into Macedonia, ready to 
join his army. When the stipulated pay was re- 
fused them they also withdrew, and Perseus was 
left to fight out the contest single-handed. The 
Roman consul, ^Emilius Paulus, defeated Perseus 
with great loss at the decisive battle of Pydna in 
168 b.c, and thus the last great power of the 
East was destroyed by the Romans. Perseus was 
carried to Rome as a prisoner and died in captivity. 

195. Destruction of Corinth. — Corinth belonged to 
the Achaian League and joined in the rebellion of 
the league against Rome. In 146 b.c the city was 
taken and destroyed by L. Mummius, a Roman 
consul, who treated it in the most barbarous 
manner. The inhabitants of the city were sold 
as slaves ; those works of art which were not de- 
stroyed by the soldiery, were carried to Rome; 



242 ANCIENT HISTORY 

the buildings were razed to the ground and the 
city remained in ashes for one hundred years. It 
was rebuilt in 46 B.C. by Cassar. 

196. The Third Punic War. — In the half-cent- 
ury succeeding the close of the second Punic 
war, Carthage closely observed the terms of the 
treaty of peace of 201 B.C., and made every en- 
deavour to regain by commerce what she had 
lost by the sword. The increasing prosperity of 
Carthage was jealously watched by Rome, and 
when Masinissa, the king of Numidia, began his 
harassing raids upon Carthaginian lands, Car- 
thage was unable to defend her possessions, being 
bound by the treaty of 201, and all disputes 
between Carthage and Masinissa had to be 
submitted to Rome for adjustment. Rome invari- 
ably decided in favor of Masinissa, and the treat- 
ment accorded Carthage by her conqueror was 
weli nigh intolerable. In 157 B.C., Marcus Por- 
cius Cato was sent to Africa to adjust one of the 
disputes, and he was amazed at the prosperity 
he witnessed in the city which only thirty-four 
years previously had been sacked by the army of 
Scipio. 

On his return from Carthage, Cato recited to 
the Senate the things he had seen, awakening 
all the old enmity against the rival of Rome. 
At the close of his speech he took from the folds 
of his toga a bunch .of figs and said, holding the 
fruit up before the senators : " This fruit has been 
brought from Carthage — so near to us is a city 



ROME 243 

so strong and prosperous." And he wound up 
with the oft-quoted " Carthaginem esse delendam 
(censeo)." This admonition, "Carthage must be 
destroyed," he held up to the Romans at every 
opportunity, and whenever he addressed a public 
assemblage, on whatever subject, he invariably 
ended his address as quoted above. 

The pretext for beginning the war with Car- 
thage was found by the Romans in 150 B.C., when 
the Carthaginians broke the terms of the peace 
agreement of 201- B.C., which prohibited their tak- 
ing up arms without the consent of Rome. Some 
of the friends of Masinissa in Carthage having 
been banished, Masinissa invaded Carthaginian 
territory and demanded the recall of the ban- 
ished. The Carthaginians refused and sent an 
army against Masinissa, but were defeated, and 
the captured soldiers of Carthage were driven 
under the yoke by the Numidians and then mas- 
sacred. The Carthaginian Senate now sent an 
embassy to Rome to offer amends for the break- 
ing of the conditions of the treaty. They were 
told that if they furnished three hundred mem- 
bers of the oldest Carthaginian families as host- 
ages, Rome would respect the independence of 
their city. The Carthaginians complied, but no 
sooner were the hostages in the hands of the 
Romans than a large army crossed from Sicily to 
Africa, disembarking at Utica, some ten miles 
from Carthage. When the Carthaginians inquired 
as to the reason for this new menace, they were 



244 ANCIENT HISTORY 

told that as now Carthage was under the protec- 
torate of Rome they would need no arms, and 
should therefore deliver them to the Romans, 
with all munitions of war. Again the Carthagin- 
ians complied, knowing that they had to deal 
with a relentless foe. As soon as the arms were 
delivered, the Romans threw off all disguise and 
ordered the Carthaginians to leave the city, as 
Carthage must be destroyed, but that they could 
found a new city ten miles from the sea. This 
perfidious treachery of the Romans caused the 
Carthaginians to close the gates of the city and 
prepare for a struggle to the last. 

197. Fall of Carthage. — The whole city was now 
transformed into a great workshop. A new sup- 
ply of arms was produced as rapidly as possible. 
Men, women, and children joined in the work of 
preparing the city for a stubborn defence. The 
women cut off their hair and gave it to the manu- 
facturers to make strings for the bows and cata- 
pults. Hasdrubal was recalled from banishment 
and was entrusted with the command of the de- 
fenders. When the Romans advanced from Utica 
they found the city so well fortified as to be well- 
nigh impregnable to assault. 

Scipio, the military tribune in command of the 
Roman forces, made only one attempt to carry 
the city by storm, but failed, and had to content 
himself with laying siege to it. The Roman 
army being unprepared for this, not having the 
necessary equipments, progress was slow toward 



ROME 245 

the destruction of the city. In 147 b.c. Scipio 
was made consul, and when he returned to Africa 
he renewed the siege with such vigour that the 
ramparts were broken through. The resistance of 
the Carthaginians was heroic, and square after 
square had to be taken by hard righting. 

As soon as a house was taken it was burned 
and razed to the ground. Finally, the narrowing 
lines of destruction closed around the old citadel, 
the Byrsa, where the remnant of the Carthagin- 
ians had taken their last stand. This stronghold 
was also carried, and with it were captured fifty 
thousand inhabitants, the survivors of seven hun- 
dred thousand people who were living in the city 
at the commencement of the siege. The Cartha- 
ginians were sold into slavery and the city was 
razed to the ground. It remained in ruins for 
thirty years. 

198. Sicily and the Servile Wars. — As all cap- 
tives were sold into slavery by the Romans, the 
numbers of slaves were increasing so rapidly with 
the conquests of Rome that their cheapness was 
the indirect cause of the cruel treatment accorded 
them by their masters. In Sicily all the estates 
were worked by the slaves, and on some there 
were as many as twenty thousand. In order to 
identify them as their property the owners had 
their slaves branded like cattle. Most of the 
estates were simply grazing farms, and the slaves 
were expected to supply their own needs from the 
flocks they tended. Of course, necessity led them 



246 ANCIENT HISTORY 

to the robbing of travellers on the highways and 
the plundering of the dwellings of the peasants. 
They were well armed and always accompanied by 
fierce dogs. The magistrates dared not punish 
them for fear of their masters, who were powerful 
in Rome. 

The cruel treatment accorded to the slaves, 
who in many instances were the peers or even the 
superiors of their masters, finally drove them to 
open revolt in 134 b.c. The insurrection spread 
rapidly, until two hundred thousand slaves were 
up in arms against their masters. For three years 
they defied the Roman soldiery sent against them, 
defeating three armies in succession, but, in 132 
b.c, they were routed, and peace was restored in 
Sicily. 

199. Owners and Labourers. — With the subju- 
gation of the different states there were large ad- 
ditions to the properties of the Roman public 
lands, as one-third of the land of the conquered 
people was always retained by the Romans. These 
public lands were sold at auction or leased at 
low rentals, allotted to discharged soldiers, and in 
many instances remained, unused. A large part 
of these public lands fell into the hands of the 
wealthy class, as they alone had the means to 
work them, and they gradually absorbed the 
lands of the smaller proprietors. This wealthy 
class employed slaves to work their estates, in 
preference to free labour, as the cost was much 
smaller, and so the poorer Romans were left with- 



ROME 247 

out employment and as a rule congregated in the 
larger cities, especially in Rome, living there in 
indolence. The public land system was mainly 
responsible for the establishment of two great 
classes, which may be designated as the absolutely 
poor and the very rich. Between these two 
classes for many years a bitter struggle was car- 
ried on, in many respects similar to the contests 
at the earlier period between the patricians and 
the plebeians. The misery of the masses led to 
the introduction, at the capital of many bills and 
measures, all aiming toward the redistribution of 
the public lands and the correction of the existing 
evils. 

200. The Gracchi. — The Gracchi, Caius Sem- 
pronius Gracchus and Tiberius Sempronius 
Gracchus, were the sons of Tiberius Sempronius 
Gracchus, a Roman magistrate and general, and 
of Cornelia, daughter of Scipio Africanus Major. 
They were the champions of the poorer clasces 
against the rich, and endeavoured to bring about 
a subdivision of the lands and the restoration of 
the class of independent farmers. 

At the period discussed in the previous chapter, 
the class of small independent farmers was fast 
disappearing in Italy because of the working of 
the public land system, the lands being absorbed 
by the rich and cultivated by slave labour, and the 
peasants being forced to seek refuge in the cities, 
where they swelled the ranks of the unemployed. 
Tiberius, as a tribune, succeeded in having a law 



248 ANCIENT HISTORY 

passed which gave partial relief, as it took away 
from possessors without sons all land in excess of 
five hundred jugura. Those with one son were 
allowed seven hundred and fifty, those with two 
sons one thousand jugura. At the end of the term 
of his tribunate, Tiberius tried, contrary to the 
constitution, to secure re-election. A disturbance 
arose in consequence and he was killed with three 
hundred of his followers, and their bodies were 
thrown into the Tiber. Caius Gracchus renewed 
the efforts of his brother, but some of the measures 
introduced by him proved very unwise, as, for in- 
stance, the grain laws, which provided for the sale 
of grain from the public granaries to the poor at 
half its value or less. Grain was distributed prac- 
tically free, and a large portion of the population 
of Rome was living without any employment and 
was fed by the state. In consequence of the oppo- 
sition among all classes because of his project to 
grant the rights of citizenship to the Latins, he 
failed to be re-elected to the tribuneship. When 
his term of office expired, his enemies began to 
repeal some of the measures he had introduced. 
Caius went to the Forum to oppose the proceed- 
ings, and when one of the attendants of Consul 
Opimius was killed by a friend of Caius, Opimius 
received unlimited power to act as he thought 
best for the interest of the republic. Caius re- 
fused to arm himself against his enemies, and 
while his friends were fighting in his defence, he 
fled to the grove of the Furies and there com- 



ROME 249 

manded one of his slaves to put him to death. 
Three thousand of his followers are said to have 
been killed and thrown into the Tiber. 

201. The Jugurthine War. — The war with Ju- 
gurtha, the king of Numidia, lasted from in to 
106 b.c. He usurped Western Numidia in 117 
and Eastern Numidia in 112 b.c, and put to death 
all the rightful owners of the different provinces, 
who, after the destruction of Carthage, had been 
confirmed in their possessions by the Romans. 
The Romans sent a commission into Numidia to 
investigate the matter, but Jugurtha bribed them 
and he even succeeded in buying over the consul 
Bestia, who had been sent to punish him for the 
usurpations. The conduct of Bestia aroused 
great indignation at Rome, and Jugurtha was 
summoned to Rome under a safe conduct to tes- 
tify. However, one of the tribunes forbade him 
to give evidence, and soon afterwards Jugurtha 
was compelled to leave Italy, in consequence of 
having ventured to assassinate Massiva, a king 
of the Massy Hans. The war was now renewed 
and the Roman army under Aulus, the brother of 
the consul Postumius Albinus, was defeated and 
the captives driven under the yoke. In 109 b.c. 
Metellus was sent with a fresh army. He was 
succeeded in command, in 106 b.c, by Marius, 
who defeated the combined forces of Jugurtha 
and his father-in-law, Bocchus, in the same year. 
Bocchus purchased the forgiveness of the Romans 
by surrendering Jugurtha, who, after having been 



250 ANCIENT HISTORY 

compelled to adorn the triumph of his conqueror, 
was thrown into a dungeon and there starved to 
death in 104 b.c. 

202. The Germanic Tribes. — The " horrible bar- 
barians," the Cimbri and Teutons, with a force 
of three hundred thousand fighting men, invaded 
Italy and came south as far as Noricum, where 
they defeated the army of Papirius Carbo. In 
109 b.c. another Roman army, under Silanus, was 
defeated; and in 107 b.c Lucius Cassius Longinus 
met with a disastrous defeat. In 105 b.c three 
other armies were also defeated, and Rome seemed 
at the mercy of the Gauls. Marius, the con- 
queror of Jugurtha, was re-elected consul, in viola- 
tion of the law. He entered on the second term 
of the office on the day that he celebrated his 
triumph over the Numidian king, and at once 
began preparations for repelling the invasion. 
After having made a movement into Spain the 
invaders returned to Italy. In doing so, how- 
ever, they divided their army into two forces. 
Marius encamped on the Rhone and took a posi- 
tion that would command both of the western 
routes into Italy. The barbarians attacked the 
camp of the Romans, but, unable to carry the 
place, they filed past the Roman army, shouting 
to them and deriding them. As soon as the Teu- 
tons were well on their way to Italy, Marius broke 
camp and pursued them. He overtook them at 
Aquas Sextias, 102 b.c, and completely routed 
them, taking the leader of the barbarians, Teuto- 



ROME 25I 

boch, as prisoner. Marius returned to Rome, but 
in a short time again came north to meet the 
Cimbri, who were then entering Italy. He was 
none too soon, as the barbarians had defeated a 
Roman army under Catulus. A terrible battle 
was fought at Vercellas in 10 1 B.C., which ended in 
the killing of more than one hundred thousand of 
the Cimbri and the taking of over sixty thousand 
prisoners, who were sold into slavery. Marius 
was hailed as the third founder of Rome and was 
accorded a double triumph. 

203. The Marsic War.— The Marsic War arose 
from the demands of the Italian allies for the 
privileges of Roman citizenship. They formed 
a new republic, called it Italica, and chose Cor- 
finum, in the Apennines, as the capital of the 
state. Almost all Italy south of the Rubicon 
seceded from Rome, only Etruria, Umbria, Cam- 
pania, and the Latins and some of the Greek 
tribes remaining loyal. The war was extremely 
disastrous to Rome and cost dearly both in money 
and lives. Finally Rome offered the right of 
franchise to all Italians who should lay down their 
arms within sixty days, and this concession ended 
the war. In after years the right of citizenship 
was extended to all the free inhabitants of Roman 
provinces beyond the limits of Italy. 

204. Marius and Sulla. — Caius Marius was born 
about 155 b.c, died in 86 b.c After the Marsic 
w r ars his rivalry with Sulla for the military com- 
mand of the forces to be sent asrainst Mithridates 



252 A NCI EN T HIS TOR Y 

the Great, the king of Pontus, who had invaded 
Roman territory in Asia Minor and caused the mas- 
sacre of many Italian residents, was the cause of 
a civil war. In the contest Marius was defeated 
and was obliged to flee from Rome. The ship in 
which he had sailed was driven ashore at Circeii. 
His pursuers found him and he was imprisoned. 
A slave was sent to kill him, but quailed before 
the gleam of the veteran's eyes and could not 
perform the task. He was then permitted to 
escape and made his way to Africa. On reaching 
the site of Carthage he was met by a messenger, 
who bore him a note prohibiting him from land- 
ing in the country under penalty of death. He 
then made to the messenger the celebrated answer, 
" Go and tell the praetor that you have seen Caius 
Marius sitting among the ruins of Carthage." He 
left with his son and found a temporary refuge on 
the island of Cercina. When the news reached 
him that his party in Rome, under Cinna, had 
been successful and that his help was needed, he 
at once set sail for Italy and joined Cinna. They 
captured Rome in 87 B.C., and Marius took ter- 
rible revenge, proscribing the aristocrats. Marius 
and Cinna were elected consuls, and Marius died 
in consequence of dissipation, after having held 
the consulate for the seventh time for just thirteen 
days. 

Lucius Cornelius Sulla was born in about 138 
B.C.; he died in 78 b.c. In the Mithridatic War, 
which lasted from 87 to 84 b.c, Sulla defeated the 



ROME 253 

enemy and in 83 b.c. landed in Italy. He wrote 
to the Senate saying that he was returning to take 
vengeance upon the Marian party, his own and 
the republic's enemies. He marched into Rome 
as dictator and immediately proscribed the lead- 
ers of the Marian party, confiscating their pro- 
perty. He gratified his friends by placing on the 
list of the proscribed their personal enemies, or 
persons whose property was coveted by his ad- 
herents. The number of persons who perished by 
the proscriptions runs far into the thousands. He 
was made dictator for life, and used his position 
to revise the constitution in favour of the aristo- 
cratic party. After enjoying his power for three 
years, he suddenly resigned in 79 b.c, retired to his 
villa at Puteoli, and died there in the following 
year. 

205. The Last Days of the Republic. — Although 
the civil war had been ended in Italy, it still con- 
tinued in Spain, where Sertorius, an adherent of 
Marius, for three years successfully opposed Metel- 
lus, one of Sulla's ablest generals; and in 76 b.c. 
the Romans saw that it had become necessary 
to send reinforcements to Metellus. The Senate 
selected Pompey and sent him to Spain, with the 
title of proconsul and with powers equal to those 
of Metellus. Pompey remained in Spain for six 
years, but neither he nor Metellus was able to 
gain any advantage over the able Sertorius. The 
latter was murdered by his own lieutenant, Per- 
perna, in 72 b.c, and then the war was brought to 



254 ANCIENT HISTORY 

a close, Pompey easily defeating Perperna in 71 
b.c. Pompey boasted of having subdued more 
than eight hundred cities in Spain and Southern 
Gaul. He established military colonies and pro- 
ceeded to put his own adherents in power. On 
his march towards Rome he met the remains of 
the army of Spartacus, which Crassus had pre- 
viously defeated. Pompey cut the fugitives to 
pieces and claimed for himself the credit of having 
finished the War of the Gladiators. 

206. The War of the Gladiators. — Gladiators 
were at first prisoners of war, slaves, or con- 
demned criminals, who fought in the Roman 
arenas for the entertainment of the people. 
(Later, freemen also fought in the arena, and 
under the empire even senators, knights, and 
women exhibited themselves in the contests.) 
They were trained in schools and were hired out 
for the contests, and were divided in different 
classes according to the weapons they fought with. 

As the gladiators were mainly recruited from 
slaves and criminals, they were more dangerous 
characters than the modern galley slaves or con- 
victs, and, although well fed and carefully tended, 
they were nevertheless subjected to an iron dis- 
cipline. In the school of gladiators discovered at 
Pompeii, many of the sixty-three skeletons found 
were in chains and irons. Their lot was a very 
hard one and precautions had to be taken to pre- 
vent suicides. 

In 73 b.c, Spartacus, a Thracian slave, escaped 



ROME 255 

with seventy others from a school of gladiators at 
Capua. In a short time he found himself at the 
head of a large force of runaway slaves, outlaws, 
brigands, and impoverished peasants. After some 
small successes, he armed his forces with the arms 
captured from his enemies, and his army increased 
until it numbered nearly one hundred thousand 
men. He repeatedly defeated the Roman armies 
and made himself master of Southern Italy. 
Spartacus was an able and valiant man, and fore- 
saw that in the. end Rome must triumph. He 
therefore counselled his followers to fight their 
way over the Alps and to disperse to their various 
homes in Spain, Gaul, and Thrace. But they 
imagined that they had Rome at their mercy and 
refused to take his counsel. Crassus then crowded 
the insurgents into Rhegium, and Spartacus at- 
tempted to cross over to Sicily with the aid of 
some pirate vessels. The pirates, however, left 
him to his fate, sailing away after having received 
their pay for the passage of Spartacus and his 
forces. Crassus built a wall across the isthmus 
to prevent the escape of the insurgents, but Spar- 
tacus succeeded in breaking through the lines of 
the Romans and hastened northward. Crassus 
started in pursuit, and on the river Silarus de- 
feated the rebels, few of whom escaped, Spartacus 
himself being slain in the battle. The remnant of 
about five thousand men who succeeded in escap- 
ing were met by Pompey on his return from Spain 
and were literally annihilated. The punishment 



256 ANCIENT HISTORY 

meted out to the rebels captured by the Romans 
was severe ; as many as six thousand were cruci- 
fied on the Appian Way as a warning to the slaves 
who should attempt to regain their freedom. 

207. Verres. — Verres was propraetor in Sicily 
and remained there for nearly three years, from 
73 to 71 b.c. His three years' rule desolated the 
island more effectually than had the two Servile 
Wars, or even the contest between Rome and Car- 
thage for the possession of the island. He sold 
all the offices; demanded from the farmers the 
greater part of their crops, and from the wealthy, 
money and works of art; imposed heavy con- 
tributions on the middle classes, and amassed a 
great fortune. Indeed, he boasted that he had 
enough for life, even if he were compelled to give 
up two-thirds of his plunder to pay and bribe his 
prosecutors and judges. At last the inhabitants 
of the island decided to prosecute him, and after 
some attempts to set up a sham prosecutor in- 
stead of Cicero, who had been selected for the 
task, Verres was compelled to flee, seeing the 
hopelessness of his case, and, during his absence, he 
was convicted. He fled to Massilia and took a 
greater part of his ill-gotten wealth with him, 
which eventually was the cause of his being 
proscribed by Anton)'- in 43 b.c. 

208. The Mediterranean Pirates. — The conquests 
of the Romans in Africa, Spain, and Asia Mi- 
nor had caused many adventurous spirits from 
these provinces to take to their ships and seek a 



ROME 257 

livelihood by preying upon the commerce of the 
seas. In 67 b.c. the pirates were practically mas- 
ters of the Mediterranean, and the Romans passed 
a bill giving Pompey the command of the war 
against the pirates. He laid his plans with great 
skill and care, and succeeded in clearing the west- 
ern part of the Mediterranean of pirates in the 
short space of forty days, and restored communi- 
cation between Italy, Africa, and Spain. He 
then turned his attention towards the seas east of 
Italy and followed the pirates to their strongholds 
in Cilicia. After having sustained a stinging de- 
feat, great numbers of the pirates were induced to 
surrender upon the promise of a pardon. Most of 
these prisoners were settled at Soli, which hence- 
forth was called Pompeiopolis. The second part 
of the war against the pirates lasted only forty- 
nine days, and the entire campaign was finished 
in three months. His success in the war against 
the pirates gained Pompey much honour, and in 
his absence from Rome he was selected as the 
leader in the war against Mithridates. 

209. The Mithridatic War. — Mithridates had al- 
ready been defeated by an army under Lucullus, 
and it was left to Pompey to bring the war to a 
successful issue. On his approach, Mithridates 
retreated towards Armenia, but was defeated by 
Pompey and his army almost cut to pieces. 
Mithridates had to flee, and escaped to the mount- 
ains of the Caucasus, where he again endeav- 
oured to raise an army. His hopes were crushed 



258 ANCIENT HISTORY 

by a revolt of his son Pharnaces, and in despair 
he took his own life in 63 b.c. Pompey continued 
on his victorious march, conquered Syria, Phoe- 
nicia, and Coele-Syria, and made these countries 
a Roman province. He then entered Palestine 
and captured Jerusalem after a short siege in 

63 B.C. 

210. Pompey's Triumph. — After settling the af- 
fairs in the East, Pompey returned to Italy in 
62 b.c. and entered Rome, where he was accorded 
a triumph for the third time. His triumphal pro- 
cession was the most magnificent of all that had 
been held before. The spoils of war were car- 
ried before him; three hundred and twenty-two 
princes walked before his chariot, and the legends 
on the banners announced that he had conquered 
twelve million people, that he had taken one 
thousand strongholds, nine hundred towns, and 
eight hundred ships, and that he had added 
twenty-five millions to the treasures of the state, 
besides doubling the revenues. Pompey boasted, 
in fact, that each triumph granted to him had 
been for the conquering of a continent ; the first 
for Africa, the second for Europe, the third for 
Asia, and that he thus had conquered the entire 
world. 

211. Catiline's Conspiracy. — Catiline, after hav- 
ing returned from a governorship of Africa, was 
accused of oppression in his province, and was 
disqualified from becoming a candidate for the 
office of consul. Exasperated because of this dis- 



ROME 259 

appointment, he entered into a conspiracy with a 
number of demoralised nobles with ruined for- 
tunes, who were eager to accept any opportunity 
for relieving their embarrassments, to murder the 
consuls and officers of the state and to plunder 
the capital. He proposed that the offices of the 
new government be divided among his followers 
and expected aid in his schemes from Spain and 
Africa, intending also to enroll among his forces 
the gladiators and slaves. Upon the overthrow 
of the government all debts were to be cancelled 
and the proscriptions of Sulla renewed. Cicero, 
who was consul, was unrelaxing in his efforts to 
preserve the state from the impending danger. 
Through Fulvia, the mistress of Curius, he was 
kept welHnformed of all the meetings of the con- 
spirators, and finally openly accused Catiline, de- 
livering in the Senate the first of his celebrated 
orations against Catiline, in which he proved an 
intimate knowledge of all the doings of the con- 
spirators. Catiline, who was present, attempted 
to defend himself, but his voice was drowned by 
cries of "Enemy" and "Parricide," and he was 
compelled to leave the city. His followers tried 
to join him, but were arrested by Cicero in their 
midnight flight and immediately brought before 
the Senate. Cicero proved their guilt by the 
testimony of witnesses, and they were given into 
the custody of the senators. Then Cicero deliv- 
ered his third oration against Catiline, and on 
the following day the Senate was again called to 



260 ANCIENT HISTORY 

discuss the punishment of the conspirators. The 
speech of Cicero in the debate of the Senate is 
preserved in his fourth oration. The conspirators 
were sentenced to death and executed, and the 
consul Antonius, a former adherent of Catiline, was 
sent with an army against him. In the battle 
near Pistoria the forces of Catiline met with de- 
feat. Catiline himself was slain and his head 
brought to Rome as a trophy. 

212. The Rise of Caesar. — In his Commentarii 
de Bello Gallico Caesar has left a graphic account of 
his expeditions against the Gauls. At the end of 
his consulship the administration of Cisalpine and 
Transalpine Gaul was assigned to Caesar. In the 
spring of 58 B.C. he received news of an alarming 
nature from beyond the Alps, and at once began 
a series of brilliant campaigns against the Gauls, 
Germany, and Britain. In 55 b.c. Caesar con- 
structed a bridge across the Rhine and led his 
forces against the Germans in their own territory. 
In the autumn of the same year he crossed over to 
Britain, but returned to the mainland for the 
winter. The following season he again invaded 
Britain, but failed to establish any permanent 
military garrisons. In 52 b.c, while Caesar was 
absent in Italy, another revolt occurred among 
the Gallic tribes under Vercingetorix. For a 
time the barbarians were successful, but the mili- 
tary genius of Caesar restored the province to 
Roman sovereignty. In his campaigns, Caesar is 
said to have slain one million of barbarians — one- 



ROME 26l 

third of the entire population — and another third 
he carried into captivity. His victories aroused 
the greatest enthusiasm in Rome, and caused 
jealousy on the part of Pompey, who tried to 
deprive Caesar of his command. Caesar offered to 
resign his command if Pompey would do the same, 
but the Senate refused to agree to a compromise. 
The Senate then passed a bill ordering Caesar to 
disband his army on a certain day. Two of the 
tribunes opposed the bill, but their opposition was 
unsuccessful and they fled into Caesar's camp. 
Caesar, under the pretext of protecting the tri- 
bunes, crossed the Rubicon and marched towards 
Rome. Pompey had been intrusted with the 
command of an army against Caesar, but most of 
his forces deserted to Caesar, so that Pompey was 
forced to flee. He crossed over to Greece and 
attempted to form another army. 

213. Caesar and Pompey. — The estrangement 
between Pompey and Caesar, who both aspired to 
supreme power in Rome, was the cause of the 
Civil War. While Caesar was winning victories in 
Gaul and gaining in the esteem of the Roman 
people, Pompey was using all his influence to de- 
prive him of his command. He succeeded in this, 
the Senate actually passing the proposed bill. 
Instead of being a calamity for Caesar, the Senate's 
order for the disbandment of the army proved for 
him the opportunity for a great personal triumph. 
Town after town opened their gates to him, 
and his march towards Rome became a veritable 



262 ANCIENT HISTORY 

triumphal progress. Pompey, with the Senate, fled 
from Rome to Brundisium, and from there em- 
barked for Greece. Caesar was not able to follow 
him thither for the want of ships, and marched 
back to Rome, after having, in the short time of 
three months, become the master of all Italy. 
He then set out for Spain, and after defeating the 
legates of Pompey, returned to Rome, having in 
the meantime been appointed dictator. He re- 
signed his dictatorship after eleven days and 
crossed over to Greece. 

214. Pompey's Defeat at Pharsalia. — Pompey had 
in the meantime collected a formidable army 
in Greece, and succeeded in worsting Caesar in the 
initial engagements. On the plains of Pharsalia, 
in Thessaly, the two armies met again in 48 B.C., 
and Pompey was completely defeated. Pompey 
fled to Egypt, pursued by Caesar, but was mur- 
dered before Caesar arrived. His head was 
brought to Caesar, who shed tears at the death of 
his rival, and ordered his murderers to be exe- 
cuted. Great honours were showered upon Caesar 
after the victory at Pharsalia. He was appointed 
dictator for one year, consul for five years, and 
tribune for life. Although he declined the consul- 
ships, he entered upon the dictatorship in 48 B.C. 
After his arrival in Egypt, Caesar became involved 
in a war, called the Alexandrine War. The war 
was caused by the determination of Caesar that 
Cleopatra, who had won his heart, should rule 
with her brother Ptolemy. However, the guar- 



ROME 263 

dians of the young king opposed his plans and 
the war ensued, which was not brought to a 
close until 47 b.c. Caesar then returned to Rome 
through Syria and Asia Minor, and on his march 
attacked Pharnaces, the son of Mithridates, 
whom he easily defeated in the battle near Zela. 
He informed the Senate of his victory in the 
words, veni, vidi, vici. After reaching Rome, he 
was appointed consul for the following year and 
returned to Egypt, where Scipio and Cato had 
gathered an army. The war was then brought to 
a close by the defeat of the army of Scipio and 
Cato at Thapsus, in 46 b.c. 

215. Caius Julius Caesar. — Julius Cassar was one 
of the greatest men of antiquity. He was not only 
an able general, a statesman, orator, and poet, 
but was also a historian, and during his busy life 
found the time for his literary pursuits. His 
works, most of which have been lost, are remark- 
able for the purity of his Latin, for which they 
were treasured by the ancients themselves. The 
Commentarii are the only works preserved to pos- 
terity. The story of the Gallic wars is in seven 
books ; that of the Civil War in three books. His 
abilities as a general were overshadowed by his 
greatness as a statesman. He adopted a broader 
policy, rebuilt both Carthage and Corinth, and 
founded many colonies in different provinces in 
which he settled the poor citizens of the capital. 
He increased the number of the Senate to nine 
hundred, and made it more representative of all 



264 ANCIENT HISTORY 

classes and all parts of the empire. He confined 
the donations of corn to the poorest citizens, and 
did his best to discourage the tilling of the soil 
by slaves, in order to restore the class of small 
farmers. He enforced the laws without favour, 
and endeavoured, with small success, however, to 
repress the luxurious tendency of the age. 

His life was terminated by the hands of assas- 
sins before he could put in execution many plans 
of vast importance. It was his intention to 
codify the laws and to provide public libraries of 
Latin and Greek works; the draining of the Pon- 
tine marshes is also a project accredited to him — 
it is still to be accomplished. The piercing of the 
Isthmus of Corinth; the building of a road from 
the Adriatic to the Tiber, these were some of the 
enterprises he planned. Among his plans for the 
empire were the subduing of the Parthians and 
the Germans, which he intended to accomplish 
by conquering the Thracians first, and then, lead- 
ing his army through Scythia, he planned to fall 
upon the Germans from the rear. When he was 
about to set out on the expedition against the 
Thracians, he was killed by assassins. 

Caesar possessed the power of a king, and al- 
though he may have secretly desired the title 
also, he refused the diadem which Mark Antony 
offered to him on the. festival of the Lupercalia. 
His power, however, was not without envy. The 
Roman aristocracy had been so long accustomed 
to rule the Roman world, that they were unwill- 



ROME 265 

ing to tolerate a master, and therefore decided 
to remove Caesar by assassination. There were 
some also, who wished to restore the republic, and 
who joined the conspiracy against Caesar out of 
love for Rome. Many of the conspirators had 
been raised by Cassar to wealth and power ; some 
of them, among others Brutus, lived on terms of 
intimate friendship with him. Cassar was re- 
peatedly warned of his impending fate, but with 
the inherent courage of his manhood he paid no 
attention to the warnings of the soothsayers, who, 
no doubt, having been informed about the con- 
spiracy against him, warned him to beware of 
"The Ides of March." On the 15th of March, 
44 B.C., after he had taken his seat in the assem- 
bly chamber, he was surrounded by the assassins, 
who immediately drew their daggers. Caesar at 
first defended himself, but seeing that his friend 
Brutus had also drawn his sword, he exclaimed 
" Et tu, Brute!", drew his toga over his face and 
sank, pierced by many wounds, at the foot of the 
statue of Pompey. The conspirators had hoped 
that their act would meet with the acclaim of the 
populace. However, when they entered the 
Forum, holding aloft their bloody daggers, instead 
of the shouts of approval they had expected, they 
were met by an ominous silence. When the day 
for the funeral had arrived, Mark Antony held the 
usual funeral oration. He recalled to the people 
the munificence of the dead man lying before 
them, and when he had wrought up the feeling of 



266 ANCIENT HISTORY 

the assembled to the climax, he uncovered the 
body of Caesar and showed the people the many- 
wounds the assassins had inflicted upon him. The 
people were driven to a frenzy of grief and indig- 
nation. They seized weapons and torches and at 
once set out to exact vengeance from the con- 
spirators, who had called themselves "liberators." 
However, they had escaped from Rome, and 
Brutus and Cassius, the most prominent among 
them, found a refuge in Greece. 

216. Events Consequent upon Caesar's Death. — 
Mark Antony, with Caius Octavius and ^milius 
Lepidus, after a short civil war in which several 
undecisive battles had been fought, compromised 
and formed the league known as the Second 
Triumvirate (43 B.C.). 

They divided the world among themselves: 
Octavius was to have the government of the West ; 
Antony, of the East ; and Lepidus, one of Caesar's 
old lieutenants, of Africa. They inaugurated a 
truly infamous reign by a conscription, during 
which three hundred senators and two thousand 
knights were murdered, Cicero, who had incurred 
the enmity of Antony, being one of the victims. 

Then came what can be described the last 
struggle of the republic. Brutus and Cassius, 
the " liberators," with the aid of the friends of the 
republic, were assembling an army in Asia Minor. 
Octavius and Antony, after defeating their ene- 
mies in Italy, crossed over to Greece and the 
liberators passed over the Hellespont into Greece. 



ROME 267 

Antony went first with an army into Epirus, and 
was there joined by Octavius. The armies met 
at Philippi in 42 B.C., which place is said to have 
been pointed out to Brutus by the spectre of the 
murdered Caesar as the place where they would 
meet again. At Philippi two battles were fought. 
In the first Cassius was defeated and committed 
suicide, while Brutus gained some advantage over 
Octavius. After twenty days another battle took 
place, in which Brutus was completely defeated 
and he, also, took his own life. After the bat- 
tle of Philippi the record of events is only a re- 
cital of the struggles between the triumvirs for 
supreme power, until the empire was established. 
The immediate result was the redistribution of the 
provinces and the expulsion of Lepidus from the 
triumvirate, thus leaving the Roman world, as in 
the times of Pompey and Cassar, in the hands of 
two rulers: Antony in the East and Octavius in 
the West. 

217. Antony and Cleopatra. — After the battle 
of Philippi, Antony went to Asia, which he had 
received as his share. He summoned Cleopatra, 
the queen of Egypt, to meet him at Tarsus in 
Cilicia, to give an account of her aid. to the lib- 
erators. Upon her arrival he became a captive 
to her charms and followed her to Egypt. In 41 
b.c, Fulvia, the wife of Antony, with his brother, 
L. Antony, made war upon Octavius, and Antony 
prepared to aid his relatives. The war was 
brought to a close before he reached Italy, and 



268 ANCIENT HISTOR Y 

the death of Fulvia occurring shortly after, the 
reconciliation of Antony and Octavius was brought 
about. Antony crossed over to Italy and mar- 
ried Octavia, the sister of Octavius. In 37 b.c. 
Antony returned to the East, and shortly after- 
ward sent his wife Octavia back to her brother, 
surrendering himself entirely to the charms of Cleo- 
patra. In 36 b.c. he roused himself and invaded 
Parthia, but was forced to retreat. He hastened 
back to Egypt and sought to forget his disappoint- 
ment amidst the revels of the Egyptian court. 

While at the court of the queen of Egypt, 
Antony entirely laid aside the character of a 
Roman citizen and assumed the pomp of an 
Eastern despot. His conduct, the unbounded in- 
fluence which Cleopatra had gained over him, also 
the charges brought by Octavius that Antony was 
squandering the revenues of the East to satisfy 
the passions of the Egyptian queen, the divorce 
of Octavia, the sister of Octavius — these facts 
alienated most of his friends and supporters at 
Rome. The whispered imputation that Antony 
intended to make Alexandria the capital of the 
Roman world, and the discovery by the publica- 
tion of his .will, which had been in the custody of 
the Vestal virgins, that he had bequeathed his 
provinces and treasures to the children of Cleo- 
patra and that he intended to announce Cassation, 
the son of Caesar and Cleopatra, as the heir of the 
empire, finally resulted in the declaration of war 
against Cleopatra. 



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ROME 269 

218. Death of Antony and Cleopatra. — The de- 
cisive battle of the conflict was fought in 31 B.C., 
at Actium, on the Grecian coast. The battle 
lasted until late in the day, when Cleopatra, in the 
belief that victory was leaning towards the side 
of Octavius, turned her galleys in flight. Antony, 
choosing the company of a woman to the dominion 
of the world, which was to have been decided by 
the battle, entered a swift-sailing galley and fol- 
lowed the fleeing queen. He was taken into her 
vessel and became her partner in this shameful 
flight. For a while the battle was continued by 
the lieutenants of Antony, but they were over- 
whelmed and forced to surrender. Octavius then 
followed the fugitives to Egypt, took Pelusium, 
and besieged Alexandria. Antony proved him- 
self a hero at the defence of the city, but upon re- 
ceiving the news sent by Cleopatra herself that 
she had committed suicide, stabbed himself with 
his sword. Cleopatra was taken prisoner and, 
having failed to move the unimpressionable Oc- 
tavius either by her grief or her charms, is said to 
have killed herself by applying an asp to her arm. 

From the battle of Actium is usually dated the 
end of the Roman republic and the beginning of 
the empire, which was established by Octavius 
upon his return to Rome, when he assumed the 
title of Imperator. 

219. The Roman Empire. — The name of the 
" Augustan age," which has been specially applied 
to the reign of Caius Julius Cassar Octavianus, 



270 ANCIENT HISTORY 

denotes an illustrious epoch in Roman history, 
and was distinguished for many special attain- 
ments in arts and arms, literature reaching the 
highest point in this age. 

Augustus, who reigned from 31 B.C. until a.d. 
14, was the real founder of the Roman empire. 
He declined all honours and distinctions which 
would have reminded the Romans of kingly 
power, fearing the fate of Cassar, but he received 
the imperiitm proconsulare, and the tribunitia 
potestas for life, and thereby his inviolability was 
permanently established. 

Having thus become the highest authority in 
the state, he was too prudent to show the Romans 
that he was the sole master, and therefore re- 
tained the republican form of government, leaving 
to the people all their privileges, though they 
were mere forms and the government was a 
monarchy in fact. 

Family losses and dishonours, the latter espe- 
cially through the shameless conduct of his 
daughter Julia, embittered the last years of the 
long reign of Augustus, and he became morose, 
some political disasters adding to the weight of 
the gloom which fell upon him. Before he died 
he wrote out a summary of all the public acts 
which he cared to recall to memory, and directed 
that the chronicle should be engraved on tablets 
in the mausoleum built to his honour. This me- 
morial is contained on a. ruined wall of a temple 
at Ancyra, and presents a detailed statement of 



ROME 271 

all the undertakings he had accomplished, the 
honours he had enjoyed, and the offices he had 
served. It dwells upon his liberality, his piety 
and patriotism, and is noted for the sobriety and 
dignity of its tone. He died a.d. 14, and care- 
fully prepared for the end, before which he is 
reported to have asked his assembled friends 
whether he had played well his part in life's 
drama, and if so, to applaud him. 

The wars of Augustus were not aggressive, but 
were undertaken chiefly to protect the frontiers 
of the Roman domains. In 27 B.C. he attacked 
the Cantabri and Astures in Spain, whose subju- 
gation was completed in 19 B.C. by Agrippa. In 
22 b.c. Augustus made a tour of the East, settling 
various complications in those distant parts. 
After his return other difficulties arose on the 
frontier of the Rhine, where the Romans were 
compelled to construct a chain of fortresses 
against the Germans. Drusus and Tiberius, both 
step-sons of Augustus, commanded these defences. 
Drusus was killed by a fall from his horse, and 
both Caius and Lucius Caesar, grandsons of the 
emperor, having died, Augustus adopted Tiberius 
as his heir, who in turn adopted the son of Drusus, 
surnamed Germanicus. In this period falls the 
birth of Christ, which event was destined to give 
a new date to history and to change the religious be- 
liefs of mankind. In the year a.d. 9 the Germans 
between the Rhine and the Weser formed a con- 
federation against the Romans under Hermann, 



272 ANCIENT HISTORY 

and Varus, the Roman governor, was com- 
pelled to march against them with an army to 
.maintain his authority. The Germans retreated 
from place to place until they had drawn the 
army into the Teutoburg forest, where Varus 's 
army was totally defeated, and Varus, after the 
loss of forty thousand men, committed suicide. 
Rome was thrown into consternation by the de- 
feat, and Tiberius was sent against the Germans. 
He withdrew after a brief campaign and again 
established the Rhine as the boundary of the 
empire. 

220. Tiberius. — The beginning of the reign of 
Tiberius (a.d. 14-37) was marked by a peaceful 
policy, and he used his practically unlimited au- 
thority with moderation and justice. But being 
naturally of a cruel and suspicious mind, he soon 
began to be distrustful lest the nobles of Rome 
conspire against him, and he adopted various 
schemes for their destruction and gradually de- 
veloped into a high-handed tyrant. He took the 
imperial power after the death of Augustus with- 
out any opposition, a.d. 14. One of his first acts 
was the putting to death of M. Vipsanius Agrippa, 
and in removing his rival he claimed to have 
acted in accordance with a command from the 
late emperor. In the begimiing of his reign 
occurred the revolts of the legions guarding the 
Rhine; and if Germanicus, his nephew and 
adopted son, had been inclined to accede to the 
wishes of the soldiers he would have had their 



ROME 273 

aid in displacing Tiberius. Germanicus remained 
loyal to Tiberius, and in order to draw the at- 
tention of the soldiers into other channels he 
entered upon a campaign to recover the lost 
eagles of Varus. He succeeded in retaking the 
eagles and captured the wife of Arminius. Be- 
fore he could follow up his successes he was re- 
called by Tiberius, who was becoming jealous of 
Germanicus, and sent into the East. Germanicus 
died there soon afterward, and it is alleged that 
he was poisoned by an agent of Tiberius. After 
the death of Germanicus, Tiberius exercised his 
powers in a most tyrannical way, and executions 
on the charge of treason {Lcesa Majestas) were of 
a frequent occurrence. Tiberius gave his complete 
confidence to a man named Sejanus, to whom he 
left all the powers of state while he was absent 
from Rome. In 26 a.d. Tiberius left Rome, 
ostensibly on the pretext of dedicating some 
temples in Campania, but his real motive was his 
dislike of Rome, and he never returned. The fol- 
lowing year he took up his residence on the island 
of Capreae, and while he was absent Sejanus was 
aspiring to the imperial power. Tiberius in time 
became suspicious and Sejanus was executed, and 
his death was followed by the execution of many 
of his friends. From now on until the death of 
Tiberius, in 37 a.d., Rome continued to be the 
scene of many tragic occurrences. It is said that 
Tiberius had a fainting fit and was supposed to 
be dead. Caius Caesar was hailed as emperor 



274 ANCIENT HISTOR Y 

when Tiberius is said to have shown signs of re- 
covering and asked for food. The prefect of the 
praetorians then gave orders that a quantity of 
clothes be thrown over him, and he was smothered. 

221. JEVlvls Sejanus. — /Elius Sejanus was the 
son of the commander of the praetorian troops, 
and when his father was sent as governor to 
Egypt, Sejanus was given the sole command of 
the praetorians. He gained the confidence of 
Tiberius and was his confidant for many years. 
He took advantage of his high position and sought 
to gain the imperial power. With this purpose in 
view he endeavoured to make himself popular 
with the troops, and with the assistance of Livia 
he poisoned Drusus, the son of Tiberius and hus- 
band of Livia. After Tiberius had retired to the 
island of Capreae, Sejanus was left in Rome to 
work out his plans. Tiberius finally grew sus- 
picious and sent Sertorius Macro to take the com- 
mand of the praetorian guards. Macro secured 
for himself the support of troops and then de- 
prived Sejanus of his usual guard, at the same 
time producing a letter from Tiberius to the Sen- 
ate, in which the emperor accused Sejanus of 
treason. Sejanus was imprisoned, condemned to 
death and immediately executed, and his body 
was thrown into the Tiber. Many of his friends 
were executed at the same time, and even his son 
and daughter shared his fate. 

222. Caligula (a.d. 37-41). — Caius Caesar, the 
successor of Tiberius, was surnamed Caligula 



ROME 275 

because of his having worn in his boyhood small 
caligae or soldier's boots. He was the son of 
Germanicus and Agrippina, was born a.d. 12, 
and brought up among the legions of his father. 
For the first eight months his reign gave promise 
of a just and beneficent policy, but a serious ill- 
ness affected his mental powers and he became a 
licentious madman. He put to death Tiberius, 
grandson of his predecessor, and forced his grand- 
mother and other members of his family to com- 
mit suicide. 

He often caused persons of both sexes and of 
all ages to be tortured while he was taking his 
meals, and his love of blood was so great that he 
is said to have wished that the Roman people 
might have only one head, so that he could cut it 
off at one blow. He was licentious to the ex- 
treme, and in his madness imagined himself a god. 
He even built a temple to himself and appointed 
priests to attend to his worship. He was mon- 
strously extravagant. When the coffers of the 
state became exhausted, he marched with his 
troops into Gaul, a.d. 40, and plundered the coun- 
try in all directions. He then crossed Gaul to 
the ocean as if he intended to invade Britain, but 
upon reaching the shore commanded his troops to 
form in battle array and then gave the signal to 
gather shells, which he called the spoils of the con- 
quered ocean. After his return to Rome he was 
murdered by a tribune of a praetorian cohort, and 
his wife Cassonia and his daughter were also killed. 



276 ANCIENT HISTORY 

223. Claudius. — Claudius reigned from a.d. 41- 
54. He was the son of Drusus, a brother of the 
emperor Tiberius. In his youth he was weak 
and sickly and despised because of his physical 
shortcomings. He devoted his time to literary 
pursuits, and had reached the age of fifty years 
when he was raised to the throne by the soldiers 
after the murder of Caligula. He was not of a 
cruel nature, but was very weak and entirely in 
the power of his wives, and thus he was led into 
many acts of cruelty which he would not have 
committed of his own accord. After the execu- 
tion of his wife Messalina, a.d. 48, he married his 
niece Agrippina. She caused him to set aside his 
son, Britannicus, and to adopt her son Nero, in 
order to secure for him the succession to the 
throne. After having done her bidding, Claudius 
regretted the step taken, and was poisoned by 
Agrippina a.d. 54. Claudius distinguished him- 
self by building some great public works, especially 
the Claudian aqueduct ; and he also wrote a his- 
tory of Etruria and other historical works, none 
of which has been preserved. 

224. Nero. — Nero was emperor from 54 to 68 
a.d. On the death of Claudius, Nero succeeded 
to the throne to the exclusion of Britannicus. 
His mother, Agrippina, wanted to govern in his 
name, and this ambition was the cause of the 
first crime of Nero, who caused Britannicus to be 
poisoned at an entertainment because Agrippina 
had threatened to raise him to his father's place. 



ROME 277 

a.d. 59 Agrippina was assassinated by the em- 
peror's orders and he then divorced his wife 
Octavia, the daughter of Claudius and Messalina. 
After the retirement of Seneca, his teacher, from 
public life, he married the beautiful but dissolute 
Poppsea Sabina. a.d. 64 occurred the great fire, 
which destroyed three of the fourteen regiones 
into which Rome was divided, and out of the 
remaining eleven only four escaped the ravages 
of the element ; in seven of the regiones only a few 
half-burned houses remained standing. Some 
ancient writers charge this conflagration to Nero, 
but it is hardly credible, his cruel and dissolute 
character notwithstanding, that he should have 
been the cause of the destructive fire. The 
stigma, however, remained attached to him, and 
in order to clear himself he accused the Christians 
of the crime of having fired the city, and now 
followed the most cruel persecution recorded in 
the history of the Church. Nero at once began 
the rebuilding of Rome, and in doing so caused 
the streets to be made wider and greatly im- 
proved the plan of the city. With moneys found 
by various acts of oppression and even by robbing 
the temples, he then began the erection of a 
sumptuous palace, in the vestibule of which he 
erected a statue of himself one hundred and twenty 
feet high. a.d. 65 a conspiracy was entered into 
by Piso and others, and upon discovering the plot 
Nero caused Piso, the poet Lucan, and also his 
teacher, Seneca, although the latter seems to have 



278 ANCIENT HISTORY 

taken no part in the conspiracy, to be put to 
death, with many of their followers. Nero then 
made a journey to the East and there continued 
his life of dissipation and crime. Rome at last 
tired of his tyranny, and he was declared a public 
enemy by the Senate and condemned to a dis- 
graceful death. He evaded the sentence by caus- 
ing a slave to stab him. 

225. Galba, Otho, and Vitellius (a.d. 68-69). — 
The reign of these three men, who were put into 
power by the legions, was very short, and each 
was assassinated in his turn. 

226. Vespasianus (a.d. 69-79). — Vespasianus was 
consul, a.d. 51, and proconsul of Africa under 
Nero. In a.d. 66 he was sent to the East to con- 
duct the war against the Jews. He was pro- 
claimed emperor, a.d. 69, while in Alexandria ; 
and, a.d. 70, returned to Rome, leaving his son 
and successor Titus to continue the war against 
the Jews. Vespasianus, after arriving in Rome, 
at once began to restore order. His example of 
simplicity and frugal living is said to have done 
much to reform Roman morals. Vespasianus's 
reign of ten years was most prosperous and 
marked by many successes of arms. He built the 
Capitoline temple, constructed a new Forum, to 
which he gave his own name, and began the 
Flavian amphitheatre or Coliseum, which was 
finished by his son Titus. After the return of his 
son from the East, where he had conquered the 
Jews, Vespasianus celebrated a triumph with him. 



ROME 279 

a.d. 78, Agricola succeeded in conquering North 
Wales. Vespasianus died a.d. 79, and before his 
end he requested his attendants to raise him to a 
standing posture, as it behooved an emperor to 
"die standing." 

227. Titus (a.d. 79-81). — Titus reigned for two 
years only. During the first year of his reign 
occurred the eruption of Vesuvius, which de- 
stroyed the cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum; 
and the year following was marked by a great 
conflagration at Rome which destroyed the Capi- 
tol, the library of Augustus, the theatre of Pom- 
peius, and many other public buildings. The 
emperor at once set to rebuilding the city, and 
even sold the decorations of his own palaces in 
order to raise the money necessary to the execu- 
tion of his benevolent plans. He completed the 
great Flavian amphitheatre begun by his father, 
and also the baths of Titus. His short reign of 
two years was marked with so many acts of 
benevolence that he won the title " Delight of 
Mankind." He died in 81 by poison, and there 
were many suspicions that his brother Domitian 
was concerned in the deed. 

228. Domitian, the Last of the Twelve Caesars 
(a.d. 81-96). — The reign of Domitian was the op- 
posite of that of his predecessor. At first his gov- 
ernment was mild and he enacted several useful 
laws, but in a short time he gave full sway to his 
inborn cruelty and tyranny. No man of distinc- 
tion was safe in Italy unless he chose to degrade 



280 ANCIENT HISTORY 

himself by flattering the emperor, and his reign 
was one succession of extravagances, tyrannies, 
confiscations, and murders. During his reign oc- 
curred the so-called second persecution of the 
Christians. Many conspiracies were formed against 
his life, but were always discovered. Finally, 
a.d. 96, he was murdered by three officers of his 
court, with the assistance of his wife Domitia. 

229. The So-Called " Five Good Emperors." — 
They were Nerva, Trajan, Hadrian, Aurelius An- 
toninus Pius, and Aurelius Antoninus, the philoso- 
pher. Nerva reigned for sixteen months only, and 
was succeeded by Trajan (a.d. 98-117). In 101 Tra- 
jan left Rome for a campaign against the Dacians, 
defeated Decebalus, the king of the Dacians, and 
entered Rome in triumph in 103. In the following 
year Trajan entered on his second campaign 
against Decebalus, who, it is said, had broken the 
treaty of peace. Decebalus was again defeated and 
took his own life. In the course of this year Tra- 
jan built a bridge across the Danube, and Dacia 
was reduced to a Roman province. Trajan built 
the Trajan column to commemorate the victory 
over the Dacians. In 114 Trajan began the war 
against the Armenians and Parthians. In the 
course of two years he subjugated the Parthians 
and took their capital, Ctesiphon. In 116 he de- 
scended the Tigris and entered the Erythrean 
Sea (the Persian Gulf). While he was thus en- 
gaged the Parthians rose again, but were subdued 
by Trajan's generals. Upon his return to Ctesi- 



ROME 28l 

phon he gave the crown of Parthia to Parthamas- 
pates. In 117 he began to ail and started out for 
Italy. He reached Selinus in Cilicia, afterwards 
called Trajanopolis, and died there in the same 
year. During his reign he built many public 
works. He constructed a number of great roads, 
built libraries, and the theatre in the Campus 
Martius. His great work was the Forum Traja- 
num, with the Trajan column in the centre. 

Hadrian (a.d. i 17-138) was an able ruler, and 
in the administration of the government dis- 
played moderation and prudence. He made 
peace with the Parthians by relinquishing the 
conquests of Trajan east of the Euphrates, and, 
after destroying the bridge built over the Danube, 
made that stream again the frontier of Roman 
territory. 

After suppressing a formidable conspiracy of 
Roman nobles against his life, he put all the par- 
ticipants in the plot to death. The balance of 
his reign was free from wars of consequence, the 
revolt of the Jews being the only exception. The 
war was brought to a close, a.d. 136, after the en- 
tire country had been nearly reduced to a wil- 
derness. More than half a million Jews perished 
during the struggle, and the survivors were driven 
into exile. This was the last dispersion of the 
Hebrew race. Hadrian spent the greater part of 
his reign in travelling through the various pro- 
vinces of his empire, in order to personally inspect 
the affairs of the countries visited and to apply 



282 ANCIENT HISTORY 

the remedies necessary whenever mismanagement 
was discovered. He first visited Gaul, Germany, 
and Britain, then went to Spain, Africa, and the 
East, and took up his residence for three years in 
Athens, which city was especially congenial to 
his scholarly temperament. During the last few 
years his health failed and he became cruel and 
suspicious, putting several persons of distinction 
to death. After the death of his adopted son 
Verus, he adopted Antoninus, surnamed Pius, and 
conferred upon him the title of Cassar. He died 
in 138. During his reign he had a fixed code of 
laws drawn up, and paid especial attention to 
the administration of justice. He built many 
magnificent architectural works, and in the 
south-western part of Athens erected an en- 
tirely new city, Adrianopolis. He was a patron 
of learning and literature, as well as of the arts, 
and cultivated the society of poets, scholars, 
and philosophers. He was the founder of the 
Athenaeum at Rome, and himself wrote numer- 
ous works, both in prose and in verse. 

230. The Antonines. — Marcus Aurelius, sur- 
named the philosopher, was the successor of 
Aurelius Antoninus, who had reigned from a.d. 
138-161, and whose adopted son he was. He 
reigned from 161-180, but had been associated 
in the government with Aurelius Antoninus early 
in the reign of the latter. Until 169 he had with 
him as co-regent Lucius Verus, also an adopted 
son of Antoninus Pius. Although his tastes and 



ROME 283 

sympathies would have led Aurelius to elect a life 
passed in study and retirement, various hostile 
movements of the Parthians, who had broken the 
treaties with the Romans, and other invasions of 
barbarians along the rivers of the Danube and the 
Rhine, compelled the emperor to spend most of 
the later years of his reign in the pursuit of war. 
He placed himself at the head of the troops 
and succeeded in checking the barbarians, but 
the resources of the empire were exhausted by the 
ravages of the plague, brought into Italy by the 
soldiers returning from the East. He himself 
succumbed to the strains of the life of constant 
hardships, and died in his camp at Vindobona, 
180. His reign was wise and prosperous. He 
was an adherent of the Stoics and wrote the 
Meditations of Marcus Antoninus, in which he 
registered from time to time his thoughts and 
feelings upon various moral and religious topics. 
The work presents a noble view of philosophical 
heathenism, and makes the nearest approach to 
the spirit of Christianity of all remains of antiquity. 
The chief and perhaps the only stain upon the 
reign of Aurelius are the two persecutions of the 
Christians which occurred while he was emperor. 
In the first, in 166, Polycarp, in the second, in 
177, Irenasus, suffered martyrdom. The main 
cause for these persecutions was the superstition 
of the people that the Christians had called down 
the anger of the gods and brought on a pestilence 
in consequence. 



284 ANCIENT HISTORY 

231. Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. — 
The period of three hundred years which now fol- 
lows is one of varying fortunes of the empire, and 
includes the final division into an Eastern and a 
Western empire, and the inroads of the barbar- 
ians of Northern Europe. 

The successor of Marcus Aurelius was his son 
Commodus (a.d. 180-192), who, notwithstanding 
the careful education his father had bestowed on 
him, proved a licentious and sanguinary tyrant. 
He left the reins of the government in the hands 
of favourites and abandoned himself to a life of 
shameful debauchery. He was very vain, and 
sought to gain popular applause by fighting in the 
arena as a gladiator. In consequence of these 
exploits he gave himself the name of Hercules, and 
demanded that he be worshipped as that god. 
His concubine, Marcia, discovered in 192 that he 
had decided upon her death, together with some 
of the distinguished men of the state. She ad- 
ministered poison to him, and i s its action was 
slow, she called in Narcissus, an athlete, who 
strangled him. 

From a.d. 192 until 284 the empire was ruled 
by the so-called "Barrack Emperors," so named 
because of their selection being made by the army. 
Their character is best illustrated by the fact that 
of the twenty-five emperors that ruled during 
the period mentioned above, twenty-one died a 
violent death. 

The beginning of the period of the Barrack Em- 



HOME 285 

perors was marked by the disgraceful act of the 
praetorians who, after the murder of Pertinax, 
actually posted a notice that they would sell the 
empire to the highest bidder. The sale took 
place at the praetorian camp (a.d. 193), the high- 
est bidder being Didius Julianus, who offered 
$1000 to each soldier of the guard, numbering 
twelve thousand men. 

232. Septimius Severus (a.d. 193-2 ii). — Sep- 
timius Severus, commanding the legions guarding 
the Danube, was proclaimed emperor by the sol- 
diers, who objected to the high-handed proceed- 
ing of the praetorian guards. He accepted and 
promptly marched upon Rome, where the prae- 
torians did not even dare to set up a defence. 
Julianus was taken prisoner and put to death, and 
the praetorian guards were disbanded by -Severus, 
who organised a new body-guard of fifty thousand 
men in their stead. Severus reigned from 193 
until 211. In 194 he overthrew his rival, Pes- 
cennius Niger, and in 197 defeated another rival, 
Albinus, who had been proclaimed emperor by 
the soldiers in Gaul, in a terrible battle near 
Lyons. He then waged a successful war against 
the Parthians (a.d. 197-202), and spent the years 
from. a.d. 208 until 211 in Britain, where he died, 
leaving the empire to his two sons, Caracalla and 
Geta. During the reign of Severus, Papinianus, 
a celebrated jurist, made commendable improve- 
ments in the administration of justice. 

233. Caracalla, Macrinus, Elagabalus. — Caracalla 



286 ANCIENT HISTORY 

reigned from 211 until 217, having murdered 
his brother Geta, who was to have shared the 
imperial power. He was extremely cruel and 
spent nearly his entire reign in travelling through 
his provinces, which thus became the scene of his 
many murders and massacres. It is said that at 
Alexandria he ordered a general massacre because 
of some uncomplimentary remarks passed by 
citizens upon his appearance. He was murdered 
in 217 while on a plundering expedition against 
the Parthians. He extended the full citizenship 
to all free inhabitants of the empire, not because 
of his desire to treat them justly, but in order to 
be able to collect the tax which Augustus had 
imposed on all citizens. 

Macrinus, the officer who had instigated the 
murder of Caracalla, became his successor, a.d. 
217, but his severity in matters of discipline led 
his soldiers to revolt, and in the following year 
Elagabalus, a high priest in the temple of the 
Syro -Phoenician sun-god, was proclaimed em- 
peror, and Macrinus was slain. 

Elagabalus reigned for four years, from 218 
until 222, when he was slain by the soldiers, to- 
gether with his mother, for having attempted the 
life of Alexander Severus, his cousin and adopted 
son. 

234. Alexander Severus. — Alexander Severus 
reigned from 222 till 235, and during his reign 
reformed many abuses in the state, his adminis- 
tration being able and energetic, but when he at- 



ROME 287 

tempted to apply a strict discipline to his soldiers, 
they rebelled and waylaid him on an expedition 
against the German tribes, who were devastat- 
ing regions of Gaul, the mutiny having been in- 
stigated by Maximinus. Severus was slain, and 
Maximinus, who had no other claim to distinction 
except his gigantic stature and great strength, 
being of very low birth, was proclaimed by the 
soldiers. This period marks the great decline of 
the morals of Rome. 

235. The Tyrants. — The period now follow- 
ing, from 251 until 268,1s called the "Age of 
the Thirty Tyrants." Tyrants were called the 
successful pretenders to imperial power. The 
empire was now in real danger. The central 
authority was paralysed, and the barbarians were 
threatening the frontiers of the Roman empire 
in many places, but for the time being Rome was 
saved by the five emperors who followed after the 
age of the tyrants, namely: Claudius, Aurelian, 
Tacitus, Probus, and Cams (a.d. 268-284). 

236. Fall of Palmyra. — On an oasis in the midst 
of the Syrian desert lay the city of Palmyra. 
Odenatus, the ruler of Palmyra, checked the 
victorious career of the Persians after the defeat 
and capture of Valerian in 260, and drove Sapor, 
the king of the Persians, out of Syria. In return 
for these services the Senate bestowed upon him 
the title of Augustus. Seeing that the Roman 
empire was showing signs of approaching dis- 
solution, he conceived the plan of founding a great 



288 ANCIENT HISTORY 

Palmyrian kingdom in the East. He was soon 
afterwards murdered with the consent, it is said, 
of his wife Zenobia, who succeeded to his title 
and authority. Zenobia claimed the title of 
Queen of Egypt, pretending to be a direct de- 
scendant of Cleopatra. Her desire to include all 
Syria and Egypt under her sway lost her both her 
kingdom and her liberty. Aurelian marched his 
army against Palmyra and, defeating the forces 
of Zenobia in the open, drove them into the city of 
Palmyra, which was taken after a long siege, and, 
after a second uprising, given to the flames. 
Longinus, the adviser of the queen, was put to 
death; Zenobia was carried to Rome, a prisoner, 
and after adorning the triumph of Aurelian, in 
274, passed the remainder of her life in the 
vicinity of Tibur. 

237. Diocletianus. — Diocletianus Valerius 
reigned from 284-305. In 286 he conferred the 
title of Augustus upon Maximianus, to whom 
he gave the government of the Western empire, 
while Diocletian himself ruled the Eastern. In 
292 he still further divided the empire, by selecting 
Chlorus and Galerius, upon whom he bestowed 
the title of Caesar. Diocletian ruled the East, 
with Nicodemia as his capital; Maximian ruled 
in Italy and Africa, Milan being the seat of the 
government; Constantius Chlorus was ruler of 
Spain, Gaul, and Britain, with Treves as his resi- 
dence, while Galerius ruled Illyricum and the 
country along the Danube, residing at Sirmium. 



ROME 289 

The authority of each ruler was supreme in the 
territory assigned to him, but Diocletian was 
recognised as the head of the state. The heavy 
taxes imposed because of the maintenance of 
four separate courts were a serious drawback to 
this otherwise salutatory reform of Diocletian. 
Diocletian abdicated in 305 and spent the re- 
mainder of his life in retirement. 

During the reign of Diocletian occurred the last 
and severest of the persecutions of the Christians, 
whose churches . were ordered torn down and 
they themselves outlawed and compelled to seek 
refuge in the catacombs, in forests, and in caves. 
Those captured were tortured and cast to the wild 
beasts in the arenas. 

238. Constantine, the Great. — Cdnstantine, sur- 
named "the Great," who reigned from a.d. 306 
until 337, was the first Christian emperor. He 
embraced the faith not only because he was wholly 
convinced of the truth of Christianity, but also 
for political reasons. He put the cross on the 
royal standard and issued edicts against the per- 
secution of the Christians. For eighteen years 
he had to fight his competitors for the imperial 
power and it was not until the defeat of Licinius 
near Adrianople, in 323, that he became the sole 
master of the empire. After the recognition of 
the Christian faith, the most important act of 
Constantine was the selection of Byzantium, on the 
Bosphorus, as the capital of his empire. While 
one of the reasons that led him to this step may 



29O ANCIENT HISTORY 

have been the ungracious conduct of the Romans 
towards him, because of his abandonment of the 
ancient faith, he no doubt realised that through 
the conquests of Rome in the East the centre of 
population had been moved eastward. Byzan- 
tium soon grew to be a large and prosperous city 
and was henceforth called Constantinople. He 
divided the empire into four great prefectures; 
the prefectures of Gaul, Italy, Illyricum, and of the 
East. The conduct of Constantine in his private 
life did little credit to the faith he professed to 
have adopted. He put his son to death because 
he was jealous of his military successes; ordered 
his wife smothered in the bath; killed his sister, 
and drove his mother to death with grief and 
despair. He was succeeded by Constantine II. 
( A - D - 337-34o), Constans I. (a.d. 337-350), and 
Constantius II. (a.d. 337-361). 

239. Julian, the Apostate (a.d. 361-363). — 
Julian was called the Apostate because he 
deserted the Christian faith and endeavoured to 
restore the old pagan faith. Because of the 
softening influence of the Christian religion he 
could not persecute the Christians as in the times 
of Nero and Diocletian, so he sought to degrade 
them by sophistry and ridicule. 

The Christians had declared that the temple at 
Jerusalem could not be restored because of the 
prophecies against it. Julian made an attempt 
to rebuild the temple, however, in order to cast 
discredit upon the Scriptures. The excavations 



ROME 29I 

were actually made, but his workmen were driven 
from the place by terrific explosions and out- 
bursts of flame. The Christians heralded these 
signs as miracles, and Julian was himself so 
frightened that he gave up the attempt. 

240. The Barbarians. — The Visigoths occupied 
the regions bordering upon the Danube and the 
Alps. Being pressed in the rear by the Huns, 
who were then roaming over the continent in 
search of food and plunder, they were forced to 
ask the Romans to permit them to pass the 
Danube, in order to enter Thrace, their chief, 
Hermanaric, having been killed in the onslaught 
of the barbarians, as even the Goths called the 
Huns. Valens, the- Roman emperor of the 
Eastern provinces (a.d. 364-378), permitted 
them to cross the river on condition that they give 
up their arms. 

The Visigoths had scarcely been admitted into 
Roman territory, when the Ostrogoths, who had 
been occupying the steppes of Scythia and Sar- 
matia, also approached the Danube, having been 
dislodged by the Huns, and they likewise re- 
quested permission to enter Roman territory. 
Valens became alarmed because of the large num- 
ber of barbaric people he had admitted, and 
refused the request of the Ostrogoths, whereupon 
they defied his order and crossed the Danube. 
In 377 the Goths revolted, and, overcoming the 
generals sent 'against them, soon overran the 
Danubian provinces. Valens marched against 



292 ANCIENT HISTORY 

them and risked a battle at Adrianople, in 378, 
in which his army was totally defeated and he 
himself slain. 

241. Theodosius the Great (a. d. 379-395). — 
Theodosius, surnamed the Great, was the son of 
the general Theodosius, and became emperor 
after the death of Valens, who was killed in battle 
against the Goths. Gratian, the son of Valentinian 
I., whom he succeeded a.d. 375, felt unequal to the 
task of sustaining the burden of the empire and 
therefore selected Theodosius for emperor of the 
East. Theodosius had acquired a military repu- 
tation during the lifetime of his father, and after 
his accession to the throne succeeded in twice 
defeating the Goths. He then made favourable 
peace terms, in 382, three years after having 
assumed the imperial purple. In 383 Maximus 
set himself up as emperor and invaded Gaul with 
a large army. Theodosius did not consider it 
prudent to enter into war with him, and acknow- 
ledged him as emperor of Spain, Gaul, and Britain, 
but he secured for Valentinian, the brother of 
Gratian, Western Illyricum, Italy, and Africa. A 
few years later Maximus expelled Valentinian 
from Italy, and Theodosius marched against 
Maximus, defeated him in Pannonia, and put him 
to death. A blot on the name of Theodosius is 
his barbaric vengeance on the town of Thessalonica 
for the killing of some of his soldiers. He invited 
the people to the games at the circus, and as soon 
as they were assembled, he ordered an army of 



ROME 293 

barbarians to descend upon them with the com- 
mand to kill. It is said that in the three hours' 
massacre over seven thousand people were slain. 
The penance done by Theodosius for this revolting 
crime is recorded by the Church as one of its 
greatest victories. He laid aside the insignia of 
imperial power, and in the garb of a suppliant 
entreated pardon for his sin in the church of Milan. 
After a penance of eight months he was restored 
by the Church. He established Valentinian on 
the throne of the West, and when Valentinian 
was slain by Arbogastes, who put Eugenius on 
the throne, Theodosius engaged in war against 
the usurpers and defeated them, both Eugenius 
and Arbogastes being killed, in 395. Shortly 
before his death he divided the empire and gave 
the West to Honorius, and the East to Arcadius. 
Theodosius was a catholic and issued various 
edicts against the exercise of pagan religion. 

242. Invasion of Italy by Alaric. — Alaric was a 
king of the Visigoths. He invaded Italy twice, 
the first time in 402, the second time in 408. On 
his first invasion he was brought to a halt by the 
renowned general Stilicho, who defeated him at 
the battle of Pollentia and Verona. Alaric 
escaped with the remnants of his forces across the 
Alps. In 406 various German tribes invaded 
Italy. Under their savage leader, Radagaisus, 
they advanced as far as Florence, where they were 
surrounded by the forces of Stilicho and starved 
into submission. Radagaisus was put to death 



294 ANCIENT HISTORY 

and great numbers of the barbarians were sold 
into slavery. In 408 Stilicho, who had twice 
saved the empire from the danger threatening 
from the barbarians, came under the suspicion of 
the weak Honorius and was executed. Honorius 
then caused a revolt of the 30,000 Gothic mer- 
cenaries who served in the Roman legions, by 
having their wives and children, which were held 
as hostages in different cities of Italy, put to death. 
The Goths beyond the Alps joined in the revolt, 
and Alaric again invaded Italy and marched to 
the very gates of Rome. The Romans sent out 
commissioners to ask his terms of peace and he 
demanded at first all the possessions of Rome, 
leaving the inhabitants nothing except their bare 
lives. These terms he afterward modified and 
fixed the ransom at 5000 pounds of gold, 30,000 
pounds of silver, 4000 silken robes, 3000 pieces 
of scarlet cloth, and 3000 pounds of pepper, which 
last named article was very expensive. 

After having received the ransom Alaric retired 
to Etruria. There his forces were greatly aug- 
mented by fugitive slaves and fresh arrivals of 
barbarians from beyond the Alps. He then 
demanded that Honorius grant to his followers 
lands for settlement, but Honorius, who with his 
court had escaped to Ravenna, refused the de- 
mand, and Alaric again turned against Rome and 
plundered the city in 410. 

After leaving the sacked city Alaric marched 
southward, intending to cross to Sicily, and after 



ROME 295 

the subjugation of the island, he planned an in- 
vasion of Africa, but his plans were frustrated by 
his death, in 412. His followers buried him in 
the river Busentinus, which was turned from its 
course ; a tomb was constructed in the river-bed, 
and into this the body of Alaric was placed with 
kingly honours. The river was then led back into 
its channel, and in order to secure the body of 
their hero from discovery, the Goths then killed 
the prisoners who had performed the work. 

243. Invasion of the Huns. — The Huns, who 
had driven the Goths across the Danube into 
Roman territory, now invaded Gaul under the 
leadership of Attila, called the "Scourge of God" 
because of his ferocity. Attila crossed the Rhine 
with 500,000 warriors and carried everything 
before him, marking his progress with terrible 
devastation. Theodosius and Valentinian com- 
bined their forces to stay the progress of the bar- 
barians, and their armies were greatly reinforced 
by the Visigoths, who were anxious to avenge 
their defeat by the Huns. Attila reached Orleans 
and attacked the city, but failing in the attempt to 
capture it, began a retreat, being closely followed 
by the imperial army. 

Theodoric and ^Etius collected their forces and 
were instrumental in compelling Attila to give up 
the siege of Orleans. Attila retreated, followed 
by the Romans, and on the plain near Chalons 
occurred a fierce and important battle, in which 
Attila was driven back to his camp, although the 



296 ANCIENT HISTORY 

Romans were unable to hold their own against the 
barbarians. The Visigoths, who formed a wing 
of the Roman army, were also repulsed and 
Theodoric, their leader, was killed. ^Etius gave 
up the day as lost, when Thorismund, the son of 
Theodoric, anxious to avenge the fall of his 
father, again led the Visigoths to the attack, and 
succeeded in driving Attila back to his camp. 
Next day Attila remained in camp, expecting an 
attack, and caused all his baggage to be thrown 
into a huge pile in the midst of his camp, to be 
burned in case of defeat. However, no attack 
was made and Attila was enabled to retire in 
perfect security. 

The battle of Chalons was one of the most 
important events recorded in history. This 
battle decided that the Christian Germans, and 
not the pagan Huns, were to come into control 
after the expiration of the Roman empire. If 
Attila had been victorious in this battle, it would 
have meant not only the establishment of one 
more barbaric chieftain on Roman soil, but the 
subjugation of the civilisation of the West and 
Christianity to heathenism and barbarism, which 
would have come into control of the destinies of 
Europe. 

244. Attila. — Attila was the leader of the Huns. 
He was born about a.d. 406, and died in 453, 
presumably by the bursting of a blood-vessel. 

He was called by mediaeval writers the ' ' Scourge 
of God," because of the ruthless destruction 



ROME 297 

wrought by his arms, and he concentrated upon 
himself the fear of the whole ancient world. He 
commanded an army of at least 500,000 barbarians. 
In the first part of his career he ravaged the 
Eastern Roman empire, and was finally granted 
an annual tribute by Theodosius II., who also 
ceded to Attila a large territory south of the 
Danube. He then attacked the Western empire, 
but after the defeat at Chalons he retreated, and in 
452 recrossed the Alps, but was dissuaded from 
attacking Rome by Pope Leo the Great. He 
returned to Hungary and died in 453, on the 
night of his marriage with Ildico, by the bursting 
of a blood-vessel. Attila appears in the Nibe- 
lungenlied as Etzel, the Atli of the elder Edda. 

245. The Vandals.— The Vandals were of Ger- 
man extraction and closely allied to the Goths. 
They first occupied that part of Germany now 
known as Brandenburg and Pommerania. They 
drifted into Spain and in 428 sailed for Africa, 
where their progress was so rapid that in the short 
space of two years only three cities of Roman 
Africa remained untaken. 

In a.d. 455 the Vandals crossed over to Italy, in 
response to a request from the empress Eudoxia, to 
avenge the murder of her husband by the usurper 
Maximus. Pope Leo, who had been successful 
in persuading Attila to spare Rome, again set 
out to meet the hordes of barbarians, but Genseris, 
the king of the Vandals, was not frightened by 
the terrors ' of religion, which Leo used in his 



298 ANCIENT HISTORY 

arguments, and he simply promised that he would 
spare the lives of the Romans. Rome was taken 
and for fourteen days the Vandals ransacked 
the city, piling the plunder into their vessels, 
lying in the Tiber. They carried away many 
captives, among whom were the empress Eudoxia 
and her two daughters. 

246. The Seat of Empire Passes from Rome. — 
At this time all the provinces of the Empire of the 
West were in the hands of the Goths, Vandals, 
Franks, Burgundians, Angles, and Saxons, and 
Italy itself was the spoil of invading barbarians. 
After the death of Maximus, who was stoned to 
death, several puppet kings were set up in Rome, 
until finally a child, six years of age, the son of 
Orestes, was put on the throne. He reigned one 
year only. The Heruli, a nation of Germans, 
under their leader Odoacer, demanded that they 
be given one- third of the lands of Italy, and when 
Orestes refused compliance and appealed to the 
Emperor of the East, who, however, was unable to 
give aid, the Heruli marched against Pa via, where 
Orestes had sought refuge. The city was taken, 
and Orestes was seized and put to death. The 
child-emperor, Romulus Augustus, called August- 
ulus, was spared and permitted to retire into 
Campania, where he spent his life in a villa of 
Lucullus. 

After the abdication of Romulus Augustus, the 
Roman Senate sent an embassy to Constantinople 
to represent to emperor Zeno that the West would 



ROME 299 

give up its claim to an emperor of its own ; Italy 
became in effect a province of the Empire of the 
East, and Rome acknowledged Constantinople 
as the capital of the world. After having existed 
for 1229 years, the Roman Empire in the West 
had come to an end, a.d. 476. 

B — The Government of Rome 

247. Political Institutions of Rome. — The gov- 
ernment of Rome is a worthy study not only 
because of its bearing on the historical evolution 
of the state, but also because of its large influence 
on succeeding times. The laws of Rome were 
more enduring, perhaps, than anything else con- 
nected with the " Eternal City." 

248. Early Greek and Roman Constitutions Com- 
pared. — The Patriarchal Presidency of Greece 
fairly represents the ancient Roman monarchy, 
and the resemblance between the Greek and 
Roman political organisations was very marked, 
in their general features as well as in details, until 
the establishment of the Empire. The difference 
between the two governments was that the kings 
of ancient Rome were not always hereditary, 
and that they were elected to their office. In 
Rome, as had been the case in Greece, the king was 
the high-priest of his people ; presided at a coun- 
cil of the heads of the families, and the decisions 
of the council were announced by him to the 
popular assembly. The state was formed by a 



300 ANCIENT HISTORY 

confederation of families, gentes, curies, and tribes. 
Upon the death of a king an interrex was chosen 
by the patres of the gentes, he named a successor, 
and the latter, after due consultation with the 
council, named a king, who then was confirmed 
by the popular assembly, or comitia. This 
ancient constitution was changed after a time, but 
the changes in Rome were never as sweeping and 
radical at one time as those instituted by Solon or 
Clisthenes in Greece, as the Romans preferred to 
modify their constitution so that it appeared that 
these changes might have been the normal growth 
rather than deliberate alteration. 

249. The Reforms of Servius Tullius. — Besides 
the original people of the Roman state there was 
a class outnumbering them, who were neither 
aristocrats nor dependents, and who had no share 
in the political organisation. They were the plebe- 
ians, domiciled foreigners, and citizens of con- 
quered towns, who had taken up their abode in 
Rome to ply their trades or follow manual occu- 
pations. When Servius Tullius realised the neces- 
sity for an increase of the army, he saw that he 
could not increase the number of soldiers drawn 
from the three ancient tribes constituting the 
body of Roman citizens, each of the tribes being 
required to furnish one thousand men; neither 
did he deem it expedient to add to the number of 
tribes, and he therefore decided to make wealth 
the basis upon which to estimate the graduation 
of military assessment. 



ROME 30 1 

He classified all the people, including the plebe- 
ians, in five classes according to their wealth, 
apportioning among them the furnishing of the 
army, which was to number one hundred and 
eighty-eight centuries, eighteen of which were to 
be mounted. The remainder of the populace, 
which was not included in any of the above five 
classes because of lack of property, were required 
to furnish musicians, artisans, and the servants. 
The citizens were liable to military service from 
their seventeenth until their fiftieth year and were 
divided into juniores, who constituted the army 
for the field, while the senior es were embodied into 
a home guard. In this new system Servius 
Tullius introduced a new territorial division, by 
which the territory of Rome was divided into 
four districts, named tribes, part of each being in 
the city and the balance extending into rural 
territory. 

The purpose of these reforms was to increase the 
military efficiency of the city, but they resulted 
also in an important constitutional change, the 
new tribes becoming in course of time the units 
of administration, while to the Senate and the 
Comitia Curiata, which hitherto had been the two 
legislative bodies, were now added the Comitia 
Centuriata, a democratic assembly, which in time 
became the decisive body on questions of war and 
peace, the election of magistrates, and many other 
important matters. 

250. Transition to the Republican Regime. — 



3<D2 ANCIENT HISTORY 

The transition from the monarchy to the republic 
was effected by the substitution of two consuls for 
the king, chosen by the Comitia Centuriata, who 
exercised an authority no less supreme than that 
of the king had been before them, and for the 
office of high priest the Rex Sacrorum was now 
provided, who inherited the religious duties of the 
former kings. 

While the authority of the consuls was supreme, 
their short term of office, and the division of this 
authority between them, acted as a check against 
possible misuse of their power. Their authority 
in the field was without any restraint, but in the 
exercise of civil duties their decisions involving 
the life or status of a citizen were subject to a 
revision by the popular assembly. In case of a 
disagreement between them, or if some danger 
threatened the state, either of the consuls could, 
with the consent of the Senate, name a dictator 
for six months, whose power then superseded that 
of the consuls and was absolute, without any 
restraint. 

Outside of the Senate the principal assemblies at 
Rome were the Comitia Curiata, the Comitia Cen- 
turiata, the Comitia Tributa, and the Concilium 
Plebis. Of these the Comitia Curiata was the 
most ancient, and the members consisted of 
representatives of the old patrician families. It 
acted upon matters of state, of family, and of 
religion. The Comitia Centuriata was the assem- 
bly of all the five property classes in the military 



ROME 303 

organisation. This assembly passed on matters 
submitted to it by the Senate, and in time rose to 
great importance. It also had jurisdiction in 
capital cases, as the sentences of the consuls were 
subject to appeal to this assembly. The Comitia 
Tributa was an assembly of the people by tribes, 
without reference to rank, which was established 
after the second secession of the plebeians to 
the Sacred Mount in consequence of the misrule 
of the second Decemvirate. It had the power to 
elect the quaestors, and some judicial powers, and 
its resolutions, called plebiscita, had the force of 
laws. Besides these assemblies there was the 
Concilium Plebis, composed of plebeians only. 
It had the election of the tribunes, and could be 
summoned by them to discuss any matters they 
chose to lay before this assembly. The resolutions 
of this body at first bound no one except the 
plebeians themselves, but with their rise its 
authority became distinct and important. 

251. The Senate. — The Roman Senate was 
composed of three hundred members, which was 
the total number of gentes under the kings. In 
the republican period vacancies in the Senate 
were filled by appointments made by the consuls, 
and later those who had filled certain offices were 
admitted to membership. The Senate had the 
power to approve or disapprove of legislative 
measures adopted by the assemblies ; besides it had 
the management of foreign affairs, the auditing of 
the accounts of treasury officials, the impost of 



304 ANCIENT HISTORY 

taxes and their collection, etc., so that, practically, 
it controlled the entire policy of Rome. It was a 
consulting body rather than otherwise, and re- 
mained in that capacity with the consuls, when 
the kingship was abolished. The Senate had the 
authority to forbid such legislation as it did not 
approve (auctoritas) , and the power to act upon 
executive proposals (consilium) . The importance 
of the Senate was largely that of the advisory 
board to the magistrates, who, because of their 
short tenure of office, could not grasp all the needs 
of the many difficult situations met during their 
administration and therefore had to turn to the 
Senate, a permanent assembly of the first and 
wisest men of the state, schooled by long experi- 
ence, and versed in all details of state affairs. 
The prerogative of disregarding the advice given 
by the Senate was no doubt exercised very rarely, 
as the magistrates would by such opposition to the 
wealthiest and most influential men have en- 
dangered their own careers, and thus the Senate, 
although the assignment of its functions was 
hardly definite, remained a potent factor, with- 
standing many radical changes in the constitution. 
252. The Plebeians and Tribunes. — In the early 
period of the republic the plebeians were treated 
by the patrician magistrates with such scant 
justice that in a short time the feeling of dis- 
content among them reached the point at which 
nothing short of open rebellion seemed to them the 
means of obtaining redress. While under the 



ROME 305 

kings both patricians and plebeians had been sub- 
jects, now a government by a class was instituted, 
which in every possible way sought to prevent the 
plebeians from having any voice or influence in 
matters of state, as none but freeholders could 
become members of a tribe and thus obtain a vote 
in the assemblies. The fact that the patricians 
appropriated most of the territory added to Rome 
by conquest for the increase of their own power, 
excluded the plebeians from acquisition of any 
land for their own use. Besides they were sub- 
ject to debtor laws as harsh as had been those of 
Greece, which had been remedied by Solon, and 
whenever they had recourse to law, they could by 
no means confidently expect the result, as the law 
was known only to the patrician magistrates, and 
no doubt they could interpret it according to their 
own pleasure. The plebeians found an oppor- 
tunity for voicing their grievances and demanding 
relief, in a war with the Volscians. Returning 
from the campaign, they remained outside of the 
city limits and sent their commander to the Senate 
to demand a revision of the debtor law, and pro- 
tection against the patrician magistrates. The 
Senate refused to grant their request and the 
plebeians marched to the "Sacred Mount," 
threatening to establish an independent com- 
munity if their protests were not immediately 
given a hearing and proper remedies of the intoler- 
able conditions instituted. This move brought 
about the desired result and the Senate agreed to 



306 ANCIENT HISTORY 

a division of public lands among the poor farmers 
and to the creation of a new office of the tribunate. 
There were to be two tribunes, elected by the 
plebeians in their own assembly, the newly organ- 
ized Consilium Plebis, and they were given powers 
to suspend the judgment of any magistrate, if they 
considered the treatment accorded the plebeians 
in any way unjust or harsh. The persons of the 
tribunes were made inviolable. The privileges 
thus obtained by the plebeians were not effectual 
in adequately remedying the deplorable condi- 
tion of the poorer farmers, who still remained in 
the most abject straits because of the patrician 
practice of appropriating for themselves lands 
which, rightly, should have been equally divided, 
and for many years the tribunes strove to ameli- 
orate their condition and effect some remedy, in 
which efforts they were only partly successful. 
The demand for a publication of the existing laws 
was not acceded to until nearly half a century 
had passed after the first rebellion of the plebeians, 
and when the second Decemvirate usurped the 
highest authority, the plebeians again marched 
to the Sacred Mount, determined to build a city 
for themselves. This expedient was again suc- 
cessful, and the consulate and the tribunate were 
restored, eight of the Decemvirs sent into exile, 
while the other two committed suicide. A new 
assembly was created, the Comitia Tributa, in 
which the people, assembling by tribes, actually 
obtained legislative powers. At the institution of 



ROME 307 

the tribunate the tribunes had been given the 
power to suspend such judgments of any magis- 
trate deemed by them partial, unjust, or harsh, 
and now this authority was to apply also against 
a dictator. 

253. The Decemvirs. — The first Decemvirs were 
appointed for one year, to frame a code of laws, 
and as usual in Rome in such emergencies, all 
other magistrates were suspended during their 
term of office. At the end of one year ten of the 
Tables, upon which the laws were published, were 
completed, but as some work still remained to be 
done, a second Decemvirate was appointed, in 
which only one, Appius Claudius, of the old com- 
mission had a seat. The second Decemvirate 
instituted a tyrannical rule, and the work of 
finishing the framing of the laws progressed very 
slowly. When their year of office had ended, the 
second Decemvirate declared their labours far 
from finished and refused to give place to the 
regular magistrates, whereupon the plebeians 
seceded for the second time, their move ending 
with the overthrow of the usurping Decemvirs. 

254. The Twelve Tables. — The Twelve Tables fol- 
lowed Greek forms in many respects, and a tradi- 
tion tells of an embassy sent to Greece to study 
Grecian laws and customs. The largest part of 
the Twelve Tables was devoted to private law, 
regulating, to some extent, at least, the debtor law, 
and diminishing the Patria Potestas. Marriage 
between plebeians and patricians was forbidden 



308 ANCIENT HISTOR Y 

and a form of civil marriage was introduced. A 
provision was also made for the making of -wills 
in the form of a fictitious sale besides the older 
custom of declaration before the Comitia Curiata. 
Besides the part treating of private law there 
were regulations of matters of appeal from deci- 
sions of magistrates ; the death penalty was 
imposed upon corruption of judges, and various 
duties of the magistrates were denned and 
regulated. 

255. Effects of External Wars and Internal 
Struggles upon the Condition of the Classes and 
the Growth of the Constitution. — The many ex- 
ternal wars, into which Rome was drawn by her 
location, constituted one of the most influential 
elements in the contest between the orders, and 
greatly aided the plebeians in their endeavours to 
secure rights equal, in some respects at least, to 
those enjoyed by the privileged order of Rome, 
the patricians. If it had not been for the wars, 
and the fact that Rome could but ill spare the 
plebeian contingent of her army, it would in all 
probability have taken them much longer to 
attain even a partial equalisation of the orders. 
Besides, the suffering and the hardships imposed 
upon the plebeians in consequence of the wars 
stirred them up to an even more obstinate per- 
sistency in pressing their demands for reforms and 
relief. The laws published by the Decemvirs 
gave to the plebeians the recognised position of a 
party to all political transactions, and within less 



HOME 309 

than a decade after the publication of the laws 
the Comitia Tributa adopted a plebiscitum per- 
mitting marriages between plebeians and patri- 
cians, which the Senate was obliged to confirm, 
thus removing one of the principal obstacles from 
their path to social and political equality. Hav- 
ing secured these privileges the main body of the 
plebeians would have rested satisfied, but not so 
the richer men of their party. They had secured 
enough economic improvements and therefore 
aspired to what they were still debarred from, 
namely, actual power in the political organisation. 
What they believed would be a step to bring 
about the desired result, they accomplished in the 
same year that the plebeians had secured the 
privilege of intermarriage with the patricians. 
This was an agreement whereby a vote was to be 
taken every year to decide whether the chief 
magistrates of Rome should be the consuls, or a 
board of six tribunes, and the provision was made 
that the plebeians were to be eligible to the mem- 
bership of this board. However, this agreement 
did not prove very effectual in obtaining an ad- 
vantage for the plebeians, as in some way the 
election of any plebeian to the new board was 
always prevented, and in 443 b.c. the patricians 
furthermore created the new office of censor, who 
was to supervise the enrolment of citizens, the 
office being made open to patricians only. The 
jealous fear of the patricians of a possibility of 
plebeian success in placing men of their own party 



3IO ANCIENT HISTORY 

in the board of the six military tribunes was the 
chief motive which led them to create still another 
new board, that of the four quaestors, who were 
to have the management of the public funds, the 
collection of taxes, payment of the army, etc. 
These precautions of the patricians were effectual 
for many years and it was only in 409 B.C. that 
the plebeians at last succeeded in obtaining the 
majority of places in the board of quaestors, and 
in 400 b.c. accomplished the same in the board of 
military tribunes. 

256. The Licinian Laws. — Lack of union among 
the plebeians was detrimental to their cause. 
The richer men, who had no reason to seek further 
economic advantages, were striving to obtain 
political power, while the poorer class was entirely 
indifferent in this respect and was rather more 
anxious to secure an improvement in their econo- 
mic condition. Their grievances were most pro- 
nounced in regard to the unjust division of lands, 
which practically gave to the patricians a mono- 
poly, crowding out the poorer classes. In order 
to effect a remedy in this direction, the tribunes 
Licinius Stolo and Sextius exercised their influ- 
ence to unite the plebeians for a concerted effort 
to relieve the situation, and to obtain the passage 
of a law which would definitely state a certain 
limit as to the land any one citizen could own, 
and the number of cattle he could put upon the 
common pastures. They furthermore proposed 
the abolishing of the board of the six military 



ROME 3 1 1 

tribunes, and advocated that the consuls be 
elected every year, but that one of the consuls 
should always be chosen from among the plebe- 
ians. The Senate objected strenuously to the 
enactment of these reforms and for some years 
prevented their passage. At last, when they saw 
that they could no longer oppose their adoption, 
they endeavoured to balance the effect of the grant 
to the plebeians by diminishing the power of the 
consuls and vesting a part of their authority. in 
the newly created praetor, who was to be elected 
exclusively from the patrician ranks. This pre- 
caution, the same as the others, in time proved 
ineffective, as the plebeians did not tire in their 
efforts until this office had also been won to them. 
257. Revival of the Power of the Senate. — The 
creation of the many assemblies, with the resulting 
division of functions, and the subdivision of 
offices, practically restored to the Senate the in- 
fluential position it had formerly occupied. This 
was but a natural sequence, as the Senate, a body 
composed of representative men and ex-magis- 
trates, experienced in all matters of state, con- 
stituted a most able and venerable advisory board, 
to whom the magistrates, whose powers were 
greatly curtailed by the multiplication of offices, 
naturally looked for guidance, and thus, while 
they theoretically occupied a higher place in the 
political organisation, to the Senate they stood 
rather more in the relation of servants to their 
masters than otherwise, and the Senate, nominally 



312 ANCIENT HISTORY 

only an advisory body, was the de facto ruler of 
Rome. 

258. The Provinces. — In the career of conquest 
upon which Rome was led from step to step by 
circumstances rather than by careful premedita- 
tion, few of the subjugated communities in Italy 
were made absolute dependents of Rome. In 
making terms of peace Rome usually permitted 
the conquered towns or people to retain their own 
government, compelling them, of course, to make 
contributions to the Roman treasury. In the 
possessions outside of Italy, however, Rome in- 
stituted provincial governments, of which a 
Roman governor was the head, with the retinue of 
military and civil assistants, clerks, interpreters, 
priests, etc. The administration of the finances 
of the provinces devolved upon the quaestors, 
who were elected in Rome, and were not ap- 
pointed by the governor like his other force of 
assistants. 

The status of the different communities brought 
under Roman rule in the steadily multiplying 
provinces varied greatly, and some of them were 
only very lightly restricted in the management of 
their own affairs, so that they enjoyed a degree of 
comparative freedom which hardly suggested 
actual subordination. 

The great power of the provincial governors 
practically left it to them to establish a system 
of government of their own choice, and they were 
restrained only by such largely indefinite and 



ROME 3 I 3 

meagre arrangements as the Senate had previously 
decided upon in regard to the governments of the 
different provinces. Therefore the governments 
of the Roman provinces can hardly be said to have 
really deserved the name of systems, and they 
made the nearest approach to the latter term in 
the administration of justice, as out of the civil 
procedures and the customs of the natives grew 
a series of precedents, which eventually came to 
be looked upon as something like a system of 
law. The Roman provincial governments had 
the fundamental defect of irresponsibility, as the 
magistrates in the provinces were beyond the 
pale of the restraining influence of the conscious- 
ness of their responsibility to assemblies, and, 
if unscrupulous, they could easily take advantage 
of their official position to further their own 
material interests and to enrich themselves, which, 
it may be added, public opinion in Rome, having 
grown cynical, virtually expected them to do, 
notwithstanding the fact that their term of office 
was one year only. 

The system of government of the Roman pro- 
vinces was not successful, and the main reasons 
for the failure were the consequences of its most 
characteristic feature, it having been an attempt 
to extend the constitution of a city to cover the 
government of an empire. 

The system had no knowledge of representative 
assemblies, and as the provincials could not be 
citizens in Rome itself, the checking of overbearing 



314 ANCIENT HISTORY 

magistrates or of rapacious publicans was made 
an impossibility. 

259. The Oligarchy. — With the equalisation of 
the orders and the creation of the popular assem- 
blies, the external changes in the constitution of 
Rome ceased, but under the surface there was 
going on a gradual transformation, influenced by 
the results of the extension of Roman power, which 
practically took away from the people their 
sovereignty, and gave to Rome, the republic now 
in name only, an oligarchical form of government, 
and eventually led to the utter collapse of the 
republic and the establishment of the empire. 

The burden of taxation had largely been lifted 
from the shoulders of the Roman citizens; the 
army was no longer drawn as a levy upon the 
farmers, and thus the people grew to be careless 
and paid little attention to the Senate's manage- 
ment of foreign affairs. The Comitia Centuriata 
ceased to be the assembled army, and it was re- 
organised upon the lines of the division into tribal 
districts, the same as the Comitia Tributa. The 
other two assemblies, the Comitia Curiata and 
the Concilium Plebis, lost much of their import- 
ance and influence. Gradually, also, the tribunes 
grew to be less and less the officers of the people, 
and became simply members of the general ad- 
ministration. They were chosen from among the 
principal families of the city, and in time they 
became, so to speak, only the tools of the official 
class, acting under the influence of the latter in 



ROME 3 I 5 

matters of proposed legislation. These changes 
led to what was practically an oligarchic govern- 
ment and carried with them the seed of a demor- 
alisation of the principal classes, as the offices 
were electoral and had to be won by favour of the 
people. In attaining their purpose the candidates 
did not hesitate to resort to bribery, or to promise 
favours, in order to gain the votes for their election, 
but when once in office, they used their influence 
solely for the furthering of their own personal 
interests and the interests of those of their own 
class. 

260. The Gracchi. — After the destruction of 
Carthage the effect of the long wars showed itself 
plainly in the deplorable economic condition of 
Rome, where there were now practically only two 
classes, the rich and the poor. The latter were 
almost without any means of subsistence, most 
of the lands had been absorbed by the rich, 
farming on a small scale was no longer possible, 
the smaller farms were being merged into the 
estates of the rich, and the influx of cheap grain 
from the provinces caused even the rich to cease 
the cultivation of the soil, hitherto carried on by 
slave labour, as they found it to their interest 
to convert their lands into pastures and to raise 
stock. 

Between the two classes ensued a bitter strug- 
gle, in many respects similar to the contests in 
the earlier period between the patricians and the 
plebeians. 



316 ANCIENT HISTORY 

The Gracchi, Tiberius and Caius Gracchus, 
endeavoured to bring about a subdivision of the 
lands and the restoration of the class of inde- 
pendent farmers, who had been driven to the city 
only to swell the already large contingent of the 
unemployed. 

Tiberius Gracchus was elected tribune and 
sought to remedy the existing conditions by 
reviving the Licinian Laws, which restricted the 
amount of land any one citizen could hold. 
Tiberius Gracchus was murdered, with three 
hundred of his followers, in 133 B.C., on the day 
of voting, when he again was a candidate for the 
tribuneship. Ten years later his brother Caius, 
having been elected tribune, followed in his foot- 
steps, and secured the passage of various laws 
aiming at the relief of the poorer class, among 
others one providing for the sale of grain to the 
poor from the public granaries at cost, or less, 
another for the establishment of colonies in the 
provinces of Rome, and for other reforms. 

The agitation of the Gracchi brought the two 
factions in Rome together in a contest which 
developed into disorder and civil war and led to 
the Triumvirates and finally to the Empire. 

The transformation was begun by the decay of 
the class of independent farmers, and the establish- 
ing of the oligarchy. The factional strife, origin- 
ating in the contest for the redistribution of lands, 
developed into civil wars, which became so fre- 
quent as to defy the usual means for restoration 



ROME 3 I 7 

of order. Caesar, aided by the influence of his 
martial successes in Gaul, united in his person the 
supreme authority in Rome and restored order, 
and after the second Triumvirate Octavianus be- 
came the first emperor of Rome. 

261. An Empire in the Form of a Republic. — 
In the transformation from the republic to the 
empire the Romans again gave evidence of their 
reluctance to admit their having made any radical 
change in the republican form of government, and 
although Octavianus became an emperor in fact, 
with all the powers inherent in this office, the 
Romans kept up what can hardly be said to have 
been more than a pretence of the old-time republi- 
can institutions. 

In 28 B.C. Octavianus, an able statesman, but 
also an accomplished actor, pretended . that he 
desired to retire from the active direction of affairs, 
having held somewhat irregular powers for five 
years after his second term as triumvir had 
expired. The Senate was eager that he should 
remain at the head in the interest of order, and he 
agreed to continue in military command to secure 
the control of the more sparingly settled provinces, 
over which he was given absolute powers. The 
title of Dictator having been made distasteful to 
the Romans by the proscriptions of Sulla., the 
somewhat indefinite title of "Augustus" was 
conferred upon him, and gradually his powers 
were increased, he being invested successively 
with the authority of tribune, pro-consul, and 



3 l8 ANCIENT HISTORY 

consul, which he was to exercise for life. This 
did not, however, mean the abolishment of these 
offices, for which elections continued to be held, 
although for shorter terms. The imperial power 
of Octavianus was rounded out by his receiving 
the supervision of the laws and the appointment as 
Pontifex Maximus. The Senate retained its old 
form, and nominally was the centre of the admin- 
istration, the emperor attending its meetings as a 
citizen among his equals, but in fact his decisions 
were law, and the Senate was virtually subject in 
all its actions to his will. During his long life 
Octavianus succeeded in so perfecting the ad- 
mitted prerogatives of his position, and the 
supremacy of his power, that the latter attained 
an absolute and undisputed character, notwith- 
standing the fact that all his acts were clothed in 
the old republican forms. 

262. The Power of the Magistrates. — The power 
of the old magistrates was insignificant as com- 
pared with that of the emperor, because in his 
single person the authorities of consuls, pro-con- 
suls, praetors, pro-praetors, and quaestors were 
united, while in the very fact of the division of. the 
powers and functions of these offices among a 
number of officials lay their weakness, the new 
and later offices having been created by the 
privileged class for the specific purpose of taking 
away some of the authority of some older office, 
when they were compelled to abandon the same to 
the people. Under the empire they were merely 



ROME 319 

shadows, virtual figureheads, retained to aid in 
preserving the pretence of the old republican 
forms, the actual authority resting with the 
emperor. 

263. Influence of the Provinces. — To the Roman 
provinces the establishment of the empire was 
an event most welcome and no less appreci- 
ated. The strain of the wars on Rome itself had 
been great, but still greater had been the burden 
placed upon the provinces, who had to suffer the 
misgovernment, combined with rapacity, of the 
governors, the latter making their territories a 
source for personal enrichment and being re- 
strained by none in doing so. 

The governors appointed by the emperor were 
under his supervision, responsible to him for all 
their actions, and thus the provinces at last 
secured a just administration, as the interests of 
the emperor compelled the strict upholding of 
discipline and order. Gradually the provincials 
secured privileges which had hitherto been with- 
held from them, and gaining admission to the 
Senate, secured representation for the protection 
of their interests, which .greatly tended to place 
them in such a position within the empire as 
was properly theirs by virtue of importance. 

Rome ceased to be the embodiment of the 
empire itself. It was still the capital, it is true, 
but in the term of empire the entire domain of 
Roman possessions was now being considered. 

The provinces, through their armies, which con- 



320 ANCIENT HISTORY 

stituted the principal component of the Roman 
legions, in time began to exercise a powerful 
political influence, which became decisive in the 
election of the emperors. 

264. Constitutional Changes. — From the earlier 
period of the empire dates the beginning of a sys- 
tem of civil service radically different from that 
under the republic. The free Roman had served 
the state, and had done so willingly, but he would 
have resented an imputation of personal service 
to an individual, and certainly would not have 
deemed such service compatible with honour. 
With the establishment of the empire the change 
was effected, slowly at first, and a system of civil 
service was evolved, so that finally the holding of 
an imperial office was considered a distinction, 
carrying with it influence and authority. 

From the first there had been a body of council- 
lors to the emperor, comites, as they were called, 
and this name was later transferred to the chief 
dignitaries of the empire, giving to the organisa- 
tion of the government a character very similar 
to those of the Middle Ages, with the offices of 
chamberlains, stewards, etc., which eventually 
led to the creating of the ministers and cabinets of 
modern times. 

In. the provinces the system made itself felt 
gradually, local autonomy being supplanted by a 
government centred in Rome. 

265. Reforms of Constantine. — After the death 
of Commodus in 192, until 284, when Diocletian 



ROME 321 

ascended the throne, during the so-called period 
of the " Barrack Emperors," Rome was the scene 
of turbulent conflicts between military factions, 
and the civil wars developed the necessity of 
effecting some changes which would insure new 
life to the state, already in a condition bordering 
on decay. To this task Diocletian proved him- 
self fully equal. The old republican forms were 
now entirely abandoned, consuls, tribunes, and 
even the Senate ceased to be of political import- 
ance, and the government became in fact an 
Oriental sovereignty. Diocletian associated with 
himself three co-rulers, and invested them with 
the title of ' ' Augustus. ' ' Each of these ' ' Caesars 
was to take up his residence in a separate portion 
of the empire, where he was to exercise practically 
sovereign authority, but recognising, of course, 
the supremacy of the emperor, who established his 
court at Nicodemia, in Bithynia. 

The contest between the various rivals for 
supreme power after the death of Diocletian 
inspired Constantine with the idea of entirely 
remodelling the administration of the empire in 
such a way as to prevent the creation of rivals. 
In carrying out his plans he retained the division 
of the empire as mapped out by Diocletian, and 
placed at the head of each of the four divisions a 
praetorian praefect, who was to be vice-regent, 
but whose authority was purely civil, in contrast 
to the old time praefects, whose functions had 
been military. The praefect was the highest 



322 ANCIENT HISTORY 

official in his territory, there being no Augustus 
or Caesar placed over him, the emperor, Constan- 
tine, retaining the supreme authority over all 
four domains of the vice-regents. The four 
separate parts of the empire were further divided 
into thirteen dioceses, presided over by vice- 
praefects; the dioceses, in their turn, were again 
divided into one hundred and sixteen provinces, 
whose government was administered by consulars, 
presidents, or correctors. 

The military authority was vested in four 
masters-general, who had under them thirty-five 
subordinate generals, called dukes or counts 
(duces and comites) . 

266. Separation between East and West. — The 
separation between the East and the West was 
begun by Diocletian when he subdi Aided the 
empire and abandoned Rome as the capital, 
establishing his court at Nicodemia. At that 
period, however, the division was one for admin- 
istrative convenience rather than otherwise. In 
a.d. 395 the empire was finally divided into two 
separate parts. This radical political division 
was brought about by the shifting of the centre of 
population through the Roman conquests in the 
East, the population of the Eastern provinces 
greatly exceeding that of the Western, and the 
superiority of the Eastern civilisation, from which 
had come to Rome the reform of the laws, in- 
tellectual advancement, and lastly Christianity. 
From the time of the division the power of Rome 



ROME 323 

steadily declined, and after many ravages inflicted 
by the barbarians, who had made great inroads 
into her possessions, the Western Empire crumbled 
to pieces, a.d. 476, becoming in effect a province of 
the Empire of the East. 

The great differences between the interpreta- 
tion of Christian doctrines at Rome and Constan- 
tinople were an important factor in the creation of 
the permanent political division between the East 
and the West. This religious antagonism, ac- 
companied by difference in language and tradition, 
emphasised the separation and not only prevented 
political union, but even political intercourse 
between the West, where the Pope reigned 
supreme, and the East, with the Patriarch at the 
head of the Church. 

The Roman element gradually disappeared 
from the Empire of the East, and in time it 
became thoroughly Greek, but the government 
retained the imperial character and the admin- 
istrative organisation remained in effect for nearly 
one thousand years, until Constantinople was 
captured by the Turks in 1453, when the Empire of 
the East ceased to exist. 

267. Greek and Roman Political Ideas Com- 
pared. — In the social organisation of Greece the 
city was the unit. The municipal system experi- 
enced many revolutions, caused by the changes 
which took place in the course of time in the ideas 
of men, resulting from the development of the 
human mind, and the influence of the non-citizen 



324 ANCIENT HISTORY 

class, who found themselves outside of the organ- 
isation, and, demanding admittance to the privi- 
leges of citizens, made war upon it. 

Rome was largely instrumental, through her 
conquests, in destroying local independence, 
establishing wider limits for her territories, and 
organising a vast empire, fully realising the 
ambitious plans of Alexander the Great, and 
administering the government of the empire from 
Rome. Thus the way was paved for the trans- 
formation of ancient politics into modern, and of 
the small municipality of old into the representa- 
tive state, with the combination of individual 
participation in local affairs, and representative 
participation in national affairs. 

268. Discussion an Instrument of Progress. — 
With the admission into the organisation of the 
non-citizen classes, the old-time barrier of blood- 
relationship was entirely removed, and the fact 
that they were admitted because they demanded 
it, and offered their reasons for the demand, 
established a quasi-precedent for an important 
institution, which tended to work great reforms, 
namely, discussion. 

The admitting of the lower class to citizenship 
brought about an actual social reconstruction. 
Heretofore religion had been the principal basis 
of government, now politics, interest in the res 
publico,, took precedence of religion and became 
the regulating medium. In the consideration of a 
law, of questions of government or of private right, 



ROME 325 

religion, the auguries, or the oracles were no longer 
consulted, but the common will, ascertained by 
discussion. Immemorial custom and unchange- 
able religion were thus superseded by a radically 
different principle, which also influenced legisla- 
tion, inasmuch as laws were now made by assem- 
blies to cover the various and changing needs of a 
developing and progressing society, and therefore 
became numerous as well as complex. 

269. The Early Roman Law. — While the mag- 
nificent palaces of the Eternal City have passed 
away, her laws have remained, and the impress 
and direction she gave to legal ideas have never 
lost their virility. The connection of the early 
Roman law with the state religion, and the 
agency of the pontifices in its growth, are of 
especial interest. 

In the early history of Rome the Jaw was hardly 
more than a set of semi-religious rules, defining 
the relations of the patrician gentes to the public 
magistrates and to each other. To the plebeians 
the knowledge of what the law actually was 
remained a secret, and they could learn it by no 
other means except a trial. If the plebeian was 
successful in a case, this did not mean the estab- 
lishment of a precedent, and the interpretation of 
the law lay entirely with the College of Pontiffs, a 
body composed of patricians only. 

There was no distinct line of division in Rome 
between religion and politics. The College of 
Pontiffs was practically a school for lawyers, 



26 ANCIENT HISTORY 



whose functions were rather more of a political 
than of an ecclesiastical nature, and although 
they performed, the ceremonies of ancient practice, 
interpreted the sacred laws, gave out authoritative 
instructions or formulae in lawsuits, and had in 
charge the arrangement of the dates for the cere- 
monies, the men put into these offices were 
politicians and laymen. There was no priestly 
class, but the functions of the pontiffs appeared 
to be more sacred than those of other offices, and 
the patricians were able for this reason mainly to 
retain their hold upon the College of Pontiffs 
longer than upon any other public office. The 
importance of the functions of the pontiffs was 
not in the least diminished by the codification 
of the laws and the publication of the Twelve 
Tables. 

The Twelve Tables laid down the general princi- 
ples of the law in a way necessarily terse and 
compact, and the application of their provisions 
was still a matter for professional decision, so 
that the forms of legal procedure remained with 
the pontiffs. The development and growth of 
Roman law rested entirely upon the labours of the 
pontiffs in extracting from the strict words of the 
law contained in the Twelve Tables their applica- 
tion in many widely differing cases, and their 
opinions or "responses" brought the provisions 
of the law into tangible form even in cases where 
their meaning was not apparent as strictly ap- 
plicable, because of many changes, which the 



ROME 327 

original law could hardly have anticipated or 
provided for. 

270. History and Development of the Office of 
Praetor. — The office of praetor was established by 
the patricians for the purpose of taking away 
the judicial powers from the consuls, when the 
plebeians succeeded in gaining eligibility to the 
latter office. While the praetor did not decide 
the lawsuits himself, he furnished to the judex, or 
arbitrator, the legal instructions upon which to 
base a decision in the suits brought before the 
praetor for litigation. Sometimes cases were 
referred to more than one arbitrator, and the 
judges assumed the relative position of our jury, 
the only difference being that the praetor and the 
judices did not hold their sessions at one time and 
at one place. 

The praetor in time became an important ri- 
val of the pontiffs, because of his discretionary 
powers, which actually made him a legislator, as 
the laws contained in the Twelve Tables, and some 
decrees of the Senate, were wholly insufficient to 
cover the multitude of cases and their endless 
variety, arising from changed circumstances, 
which the original law could scarcely have con- 
templated, and thus offered to the praetor the 
opportunity for the exercise of his individual 
originality in making the old law adaptable and 
applicable to the case in hand. The new princi- 
ples thus evolved were accepted by each succeed- 
ing praetor in the Edict which he gave out on 



328 ANCIENT HISTORY 

entering upon his duties, together with such new 
rules as he proposed to be governed by. 

In time it became necessary to create a new 
office, that of the prcetor peregrinus, for the 
adjudication of law cases between foreigners 
themselves, and between foreigners and Roman 
citizens. The praetor of old was called proctor 
urbanus, or praetor of the city. 

271. The Jus Civile and Jus Gentium. — The 
Jus Civile was the law as developed through the 
accumulation of the various interpretations of 
the law and the adoption of new principles by 
the praetor urbanus, and it applied to Roman 
citizens only. 

The Jus Gentium was the private and commer- 
cial law administered by the praetor peregrinus. 
It was the result of the efforts of these officials to 
systematise such corresponding general principles 
of legal custom which they found to be held in 
common by the subject nations among whom lay 
their field of official activity. The Jus Gentium 
had to do only with the relations of individuals to 
each other, and was not the law of nations, or 
international law, understood by that term at this 
day. The Jus Gentium exercised a wholesome 
influence upon the Jus Civile, because of the 
tendency toward greater liberality which it 
necessarily exerted, being the reflection of princi- 
ples evolved from the multiple experiences of 
many peoples, and not the result of the history of 
one single nation, which made the Jus Civile more 



ROME 329 

arbitrary. As the Jus Gentium applied to Romans 
as well as to foreigners, in time it was recognised 
and applied, through the formulas, or instructions 
to the judices, by the praetor urbanus, in cases 
where the litigants did not possess the Jus Com- 
mercii, and were therefore debarred from the pro- 
visions of the Jus Civile. This application of the 
Jus /Equum, as contrasted with the Jus Strictum, 
in time became an actual infringement upon the 
latter, and caused a contest as to the validity of 
the Jus Praetorium and the responses of the College 
of Pontiffs, which was finally decided in 50 B.C. 
by a law which permitted the formulae to be 
applied by the praetor urbanus, even when the 
Jus Strictum, the formulae of which had then , 
already been published, contained provisions 
which might have been considered applicable to 
the case. 

In the course of time the Jus Civile and the Jus 
Gentium lost their distinguishing features, and by 
the codification of the law by Justinian they were 
merged into the Corpus Juris Civilis, the Civil 
Law of Rome. 

272. The Conception of the Law of Nature. — 
The philosophy of the Stoics, the followers of 
Zeno, exercised a marked influence upon the 
Romans, to whom the Stoic system, with its 
theory of virtue as the supreme end of life, and of 
a reduction of the workings of nature to some 
single principle of reason, to be recognised as the 
Law of Nature, appealed with a sympathetic force. 



330 ANCIENT HISTORY 

This influence was notable in Roman law, as it 
aided the philosophical lawyers of Rome in ex- 
plaining the general principles of the Jus Gentium, 
especially those found by the foreign praetors to 
represent such conceptions of justice as were held 
in common by various foreign peoples. Viewed 
in the light of the Stoical expositions, these com- 
mon conceptions represented the result of the 
influence of some universal law of reason , superior 
to any system conceived by the human mind, 
the Law of Nature. This view gave to the Jus 
Gentium a position of greater dignity and import- 
ance and assisted in the process of the absorption 
of both the Jus Civile and the Jus Gentium into 
one law, eliminating their distinguishing features. 
In this coalescent tendency the gradual eradica- 
tion of the distinctions between the citizens of 
Rome proper and of the Roman provinces was an 
important and helpful factor. 

273. The Jurists and Jurisconsults. — The jurists 
were not advocates, who argued cases before the 
judices, but a class of scholarly men who devoted 
themselves to the study of law and of all the stages 
of its development from the Twelve Tables 
through the interpretations of the edicts of the 
praetors, as well as the influence of the Jus 
Gentium, endeavouring to learn the general prin- 
ciples underlying the provisions of the law. 

These jurists soon attracted to themselves the 
attention of the magistrates, and their oral and 
written opinions as to the proper application of the 



HOME 331 

law in certain cases were valued as authoritative 
statements, although the jurists had not, as yet, 
attained official recognition ; and in time they 
began to exercise actual influence upon the out- 
come of litigations. 

With their pupils the jurists discussed fictitious 
cases, and a legal literature came into existence, 
which was an important supplement to the 
prcetorial edicts and the Twelve Tables, as it 
consisted of critical commentaries, setting forth 
the sources of the law in the clearer light of 
scientific investigation. 

Under the republic the jurists had acted as 
jurisconsults without official position, and the 
official interpretation of the law still lay with the 
pontiffs. Under the empire the jurisconsults 
were granted the Jus Respondendi, which gave 
them the right to give their opinions on cases in 
litigation, these being accepted as authoritative by 
the judices. In such cases where the opposing 
parties in a lawsuit had obtained from the juris- 
consults opinions at variance with each other, the 
task of chosing between them devolved upon the 
judices. 

Besides having acquired the right of response, 
the jurisconsults" attained under the imperial 
system an actual influence upon legislation. 
The laws now emanated from the emperor, dis- 
guisedly at first, under the pretence of an observ- 
ance of the old republican forms, later more openly. 
It was the custom of the emperors to consult 



332 ANCIENT HISTORY 

competent jurisconsults in framing their edicts, 
so that imperial legislation remained under the 
guidance of able lawyers, thus insuring to the 
laws a normal and reasonable growth. 

274. The Several Roman Codes. — A codification 
of the law, or the collecting and arranging in a 
systematic manner the immense material accumu- 
lated in the edicts, opinions, and the writings 
of the jurists, was undertaken by the emperors 
Theodosius and Justinian. The code of Justin- 
ian is the most important, because it was the basis 
for the adaptation of Roman law by other nations, 
having been the principal source from which the 
present systems of law of Italy, France, and Ger- 
many have drawn much valuable material, while it 
has greatly influenced the laws of England as well. 

Tribonian, a celebrated lawyer to whom Jus- 
tinian intrusted the difficult task of the codifi- 
cation, completed the work in five years, the result 
being the Corpus Juris Civilis, the Civil Law of 
Rome, which now took the place of both the Jus 
Civile and the Jus Gentium. 

The Justinian Code consisted of four parts, 
namely : 

(1) The Codex, a Summary of the Imperial 
Edicts ; 

(2) The Pandects, being a Digest of law litera- 
ture ; 

(3) The Institutiones, a condensation of the 
Pandects and the Codex, intended for an ele- 
mentary text-book for students ; 



rome 333 

(4) The Novell®, or Edicts issued by the 
emperor after the completion of the codification, 
in order to remedy inconsistencies discovered in 
the course of the work. 

275. Influence of Roman Law upon Municipal 
Organisation. — The municipal life of Roman law, 
or its influence upon municipal organisation, was 
imparted by Rome to many towns in the provinces 
and, through her colonies, to their native neigh- 
bours, so that at the time of the Teutonic invasions 
the Roman pattern of city government was the 
prevalent form in a large part of western and 
southern Europe. 

With the Roman plans of city government 
necessarily came the influence of Roman legal 
ideas and procedures, and the generalisation of 
the legal conceptions, in order to render them 
efficacious in meeting the differing needs of various 
nations, made the Roman law acceptable for 
almost universal use, so that Europe has drawn 
from it a great many principles of private right. 

C — Roman Architecture, Culture, and Social 
Life 

276. Roman Architecture. — The Romans took 
the prominent features of their architecture from 
the Greeks, but they added to the Greek column 
and entablature the Etruscan arch and vault, 
which enabled them to vault the roofs of the 
largest buildings, to carry aqueducts across deep 



334 ANCIENT HISTORY 

valleys, and to span the broadest streams with 
bridges. The arch was a feature very seldom 
employed by Greek and Oriental builders. In 
the Greek buildings the outward form revealed 
the inward structure, and the architectural 
decorations, like the draperies of their statues, 
served to show to better advantage the grace or the 
strength which they covered. The Romans never 
concealed their plagiarism, and practical good 
sense and executive ability are shown in the con- 
struction of their buildings, but these two merits 
were as a rule concealed under a mass of splendid 
but inappropriate decorations. 

277. Temples. — The temples of the Romans 
were plain imitations of those of the Greeks, and 
they used the same style of columns, adding the 
Tuscan and the Composite. The Tuscan is much 
like and may be only a modification of the Greek 
Doric; the Composite is a combination of the 
upper part of the Ionic, and the lower part of the 
Corinthian capital. The round- vaulted temple 
was a building exclusively Italian. The best 
example of this style of temple, with a portico 
added, is the Pantheon at Rome, which is at the 
present day one of the most remarkable monu- 
ments of Rome. The Pantheon was built by 
Agrippa, and was connected with baths erected 
in honour of Jupiter Ultor. The rotunda of the 
main building is 140 feet in diameter and is lighted 
by an opening twenty- five feet in diameter at the 
apex of the dome. The walls are nineteen feet 



rome 335 

in thickness, and the immense stone dome is one 
of the boldest pieces of masonry known. 

278. Circuses. — The Roman circuses were what 
we would call race-courses. The most celebrated 
was the Circus Maximus. The first rows of seats, 
of wood, were constructed by Tarquin I. It 
was subsequently restored in 320, and again in 
180 b.c. Julius Ccesar rebuilt it, and Augustus, 
Claudius, and other emperors added to the 
decorations. The wooden part was destroyed in 
the fire during Nero's time, and again under 
Domitian, who rebuilt it wholly of stone and 
marble. The Circus Maximus held one quarter of 
a million spectators. The Roman theatres re- 
sembled the Greek. The amphitheatres had an 
oblique space in the centre in order to give more 
space for extensive shows, such as gladiatorial 
contests. The largest Roman amphitheatre is the 
Flavian or the Colosseum. It was built in four 
stories, each formed by a series of arches, framed 
by columns, which in this instance are employed 
for ornament only, and not for use. The colonnade 
on the first story is Tuscan, the second Ionic, the 
third Corinthian; on the fourth story, which is 
higher than the other three, there are pilasters 
which support the cornice of the building. 

279. Aqueducts and Baths. — The water-system 
of Rome was commenced by Appius Claudius, 
about 313 b.c. It was an aqueduct leading the 
water into the city through a subterranean chan- 
nel about eleven Roman miles in length. Curius 



336 ANCIENT HISTORY 

Dentatus built the Anio Vetus aqueduct, so named 
because the water was brought from the Anio 
River. From the same river led a second aqueduct 
called the Anio Nova. The Marcian aqueduct 
was about fifty-six miles long. This conduit was 
under ground to within six miles of the city, and 
was then taken up on arches and thus carried over 
the low plains. In some places it was one hund- 
red feet high. The ruins of these aqueducts in 
the plain of the Campagna are among the most 
striking features described by the visitors to the 
old capital. The Romans were not ignorant of 
the principle that water seeks a level, but as they 
had no pipes strong enough, cast iron being 
unknown to them, they could not substitute metal 
pipes, as none but cast iron would have stood the 
enormous pressure. Four aqueducts were con- 
structed during the republic, ten more under the 
emperors, and several of these are in use at the 
present day. 

The Roman baths were among the most exten- 
sive public buildings, and were erected on a 
magnificent scale. There were separate apart- 
ments for warm, tepid, cold baths, shower baths, 
swimming baths, and for rubbing and oiling the 
body. There were also rooms for dressing and 
undressing, gymnasia, museums, and libraries, 
colonnades for lounging, and grounds filled with 
statues. As these baths were built to exhibit the 
liberality of their builders, there was no charge to 
the public for their use. 



ROME 337 

280. Triumphal Arches. — The arches of triumph 
were monuments commemorative of important 
events. The most noted are. the Arch of Titus 
and the Arch of Constantine, both of which are 
still standing. The arches were modelled after 
the city gates, having single and triple gateways. 
Reliefs on the arches represent the triumphal pro- 
cession and on the Arch of Titus are represented 
soldiers bearing the golden candlestick, trumpets, 
and other articles taken as spoils in the war 
against the Hebrews. 

The Greeks had no such arches, but they erected 
mausoleums to preserve the memory of the dead, 
and the so-called choragic monuments in honour 
of the living. 

281 . Literature. — The literary life of the Romans 
was in every way inferior to that of the Greeks, 
and Roman literature was almost entirely bor- 
rowed from Greek models, or it was at least 
imitative. However, it performed an important 
service for civilisation by disseminating the rich 
literary treasures of Greece. As the Latin tongue 
came into universal use throughout the countries 
conquered by the Romans, Grecian works on 
science, philosophy, etc., having been translated 
into Latin, were read not only in Italy, but also in 
Spain, Gaul, and northern Africa, where the 
language of the Romans had come into general use. 
The relation of Rome to Greece in literature was 
the same as that of Phoenicia to Egypt : Greece 
was the inventor, Rome the disseminator. 



338 ANCIENT HISTORY 

The lays and ballads of the legendary age of 
Rome, the period embraced between the eighth 
and fourth centuries B.C., are the first literature of 
the Romans and must be placed in the same 
category with the Grecian tales of Theseus, the 
Argonaut Expedition, and the Trojan War. 
After the conquest of southern Italy and the 
acquisition of Sicily, the Romans came into close 
contact with the Greeks, and it became the custom 
in Roman families to have the education of the 
children entrusted to Greek slaves. Greek dramas 
were then translated into Latin and were received 
with great favour. From 240 to 80 B.C., dramatic 
literature was almost the only form of composi- 
tion cultivated at Rome. The greatest drama- 
tists ever produced by the Latin-speaking race 
lived during this epoch. Some of the authors 
were Livius Andronicus, Cnasus Nsevius, Quintus 
Ennius, Titus Maccius Plautus, Terence, Caius 
Lucilius, Lucretius, and Caius Valerius Catullus. 

282. The Augustan Age. — The name of "Augus- 
tan Age ' ' has been applied to the reign of Caius 
Julius Cassar Octavianus. It was a memorable 
epoch in Roman history, and Roman art and 
literature reached the highest point of excellency 
in this age. 

The famous writers of this age were Virgil, 
Horace, Ovid, and Livy. Virgil was born in the 
little village of Andes, near Mantua, in about 70 
b.c. During the disorders of the second Trium- 
virate his paternal estate near Mantua was con- 



rome 339 

fiscated for the benefit of the soldiery which had 
assisted Octavian in the war against Brutus and 
Cassius, but it was later restored to the poet by 
Augustus. His works include the Eclogues, Buco- 
lics, Georgics, and his greatest work, the JEneid. 
The JEneid is an epic poem, in twelve books, 
describing the adventures of ^Eneas after the fall 
of Troy, and is based on the Roman tradition that 
/Eneas settled in Latium and became the ancestor 
of the Roman people. 

Horace was born at Venusia, in Apulia, in 65 
b.c. He was educated at Athens and at Rome, 
and served in the republican army at Philippi,. 
in 42 b.c Among his works are the Epodes, 
Epistles, Ars Poetica, and Carmen Seculare, but 
the Odes are his best creation. 

Ovid was born at Sulmo, in 43 b.c. He lived at 
Rome, and a.d. 9 was exiled to Tomi, on the 
Euxine, where he died about a.d. 18. His chief 
works are elegies and poems on mythological sub- 
jects, the most important being the Metamor- 
phoses, Ars Amatoria, Heroides, and Amores. 

Livy was the greatest Roman historian (see 
section 285). 

283. The Satirists. — Satire is a literary com- 
position characterised by indignation, scorn, or 
contemptuous facetiousness, which denounces 
vice, folly, and sometimes incapacity or failure, 
and holds them up to public ridicule or reproba- 
tion. It was cultivated by Roman writers to cor- 
rect abuses, corruption, or absurdities in religion, 



340 ANCIENT HISTORY 

politics, law, or society. The most prominent 
satirists were Persius and Juvenal. The former 
was born at Volaterrae, a.d. 34. He studied at 
Rome and was the pupil of Cornutus, the Stoic. 
Persius died in 62, before he had completed his 
twenty-eighth year. Of his works there are 
extant six short satires, extending in all to about 
six hundred and fifty hexameter lines, and his 
premature death left them unfinished. He owes 
a great part of his popularity to the fact that his 
works are filled with a multitude of strange terms, 
proverbial phrases, and far-fetched metaphors, so 
that they have been remembered through the 
difficulty of comprehension. The first satire is 
the best. 

Juvenal flourished toward the close of the first 
century, but very little is known of his life. His 
occupation, until he reached middle age, is said to 
have been declaiming. After having written a 
clever satire on Paris, the favourite of Domitian, 
who later was put to death because of an intrigue 
with Domitia, the emperor's wife, Juvenal was 
induced to cultivate satirical composition. When 
at the age of sixty, he was appointed to the com- 
mand of some troops in Egypt, where he died 
shortly afterwards. His works consist of sixteen 
satires in hexameter, in which he denounces vice 
in the most vigorous terms. 

The satirists flourished after the Augustan Age, 
when immorality and vice were endangering the 
very foundations of the Roman state. The 



ROME 341 

imperial court was degraded, the upper classes 
were living lives of shameless profligacy, and the 
lower masses, fed on donations of the state and 
entertained at the bloody shows of the amphi- 
theatre, were exemplifying the decay of the 
ancient faith, which had been succeeded by 
unbelief and almost total atheism. The writings 
of Persius and Juvenal form almost the last pro- 
duct of the Latin Muse, and are therefore of 
special historical interest. 

284. Orators.— All the great orators of Rome 
flourished during the republic, as during this 
period the entire intellectual force of the nation 
was directed toward the study of law and politics. 
With the passing of the republic, oratory lost the 
incentive, which, as had been the case in Athens, 
was the democratic character of the institutions. 
When public debates ceased, oratory received its 
death-blow. 

The principal orators were Junius Brutus, 
Appius Claudius Cascus, the Scipios, Cato the Cen- 
sor, the Gracchi, Marcus Antonius, Lucius L. 
Crassus, Hortensius, Julius Cassar, Mark Antony, 
and Cicero. Hortensius and Cicero are easily the 
first of all these orators. 

During the first civil war Hortensius was an 
adherent of Sulla, and he was a constant supporter 
of the aristocratic party. He was an eloquent 
advocate and his chief professional labours were the 
defending of men of his party accused of malad- 
ministration and extortion in their provinces, or 



342 A NCI EN T HIS TOR Y 

of bribery in canvassing for public honours. He 
long exercised undisputed, sway over the law- 
courts, and had no rival in the Forum until he 
encountered Cicero. 

Cicero received his education under Archias of 
Antioch, and under Crassus. He was an orator as 
well as a philosopher and statesman. As consul 
he suppressed the conspiracy of Catiline, and was 
accorded the highest honours at Rome, being called 
the ' ' Father of his Country, ' ' but as soon as he laid 
down his consulship he was accused by his enemies 
of having put the conspirators to death illegally. 
He was banished in 58 B.C., but was recalled the 
following year. In 51-50 he was pro-consul of 
Cilicia, and returned to Rome just as the civil war 
between Csesar and Pompey broke out. Cicero 
cast his lot with Pompey and crossed over to 
Greece. After the battle of Pharsalia Cicero 
returned to Italy and was pardoned by Caesar. 
His Philippics against Antony proved his ruin. 
He was proscribed in 43 , and slain in December of 
the same year, near Formias. Of his orations there 
are some fifty-seven still extant, including the 
orations against Verres, against Catiline, for 
Archias, against Piso, for Milo, and for Marcellus ; 
also the fourteen orations against Antony, called 
the Philippics. Besides these, he wrote numerous 
works on statesmanship, rhetoric, law, and 
philosophy, all of which he prepared with the 
utmost care in regard to language. He was a 
purist in language, and it is said that he often 



ROME 343 

hunted for days for a proper word or phrase. 
His greatest fault was his vanity, but this must 
be partly excused, as in the times he lived the 
sense of propriety was not developed as it is 
among us, and self-praise did not then grate on the 
ears of his listeners. 

Caesar studied oratory under Apollonius Molo, 
in Rhodes. He opposed the execution of the con- 
spirators associated with Catiline in a very able 
speech, and their lives would have been spared, 
had it not been for the answer of Cato. 

285. The Historians. — The most noted histor- 
ians were Caesar, Sallust, Livy, and Tacitus. Of 
the works of Cassar only the Commentarii have 
come down to us. They relate the history of 
the first seven years of the Gallic War, in seven 
books, and the history of the civil war down to the 
Alexandrine War. Both of these histories are 
unfinished, but they are celebrated for their purity 
of language and clearness of style. 

Sallust 's historical writings are : Bellum Catilin- 
arium, a history of the conspiracy of Catiline ; 
Bellum Jugurthinum, the history of the war of the 
Romans against Jugurtha, king of Numidia; 
Historiarum Libri Quinque, a history comprising 
the period from 78 to 66 b.c. This latter work 
has been lost. The authorship of Duce Epistola 
de Re Publico, Ordinanda and of Declamatio in 
Sollustium is by some accredited to Sallust, but 
the opinions of critics on their authenticity are 
divided. 



344 ANCIENT HISTORY 

Livy wrote a comprehensive history of Rome, 
from the founding of the city to the death of 
Drusus, in 142 books. Of these only 35 are now 
extant, namely books 1 to 10, and 21 to 45. The 
style of Livy's history, termed by himself An- 
nates, is said to be almost faultless, but there oc- 
cur numerous contradictions and inconsistencies, 
which may be accounted for by his having done 
the great work in sections, each executed with 
greatest care, but without reference to each other. 

The works of Tacitus are: Vita Agricolce ; 
Historic, comprising the period from 68 to the 
death of Domitian, in a.d. 96. Only the first 
four books of this history are extant in complete 
form, and they include the events of only one year. 
The fifth book is incomplete. It is not known 
of how many books the work originally consisted. 
The Annates, comprising a period of fifty-four 
years, from the death of Augustus, in a.d. 14, to 
the death of Nero, a.d. 68, are also incomplete, 
seven of the sixteen books being either wholly or 
paxtly lost. De Moribus et Populis Germanics is a 
description of the political institutions, religion, 
and habits of the various tribes included under the 
name of Germani. The authorship of Tacitus of 
Dialogus de Oratoribus is disputed. 

286. The Philosophers. — Among the philosophers 
we find the prominent names of Seneca, Pliny 
the Elder, Marcus Aurelius, and Epictetus. 

The philosophy of Seneca was Stoicism. His 
many essays contain maxims of morality and wis- 



ROME 345 

dom, and he expressed himself in clear and 
forcible language, although somewhat affected. 
However, his language was never a mere collection 
of words, but always contained much thought and 
observation. He was not a believer in the 
religion of his country, and his conception of God 
was not very different from that of Socrates. 

Pliny the Elder was almost the only Roman 
who has won distinction as an investigator of 
nature. He spent his whole life in study and 
writing, and it may be said that the time he spent 
in the bath and while asleep formed the only periods 
not allotted to study, as even during his meals 
and during the process of rubbing in the bath, he 
either had some one read to him, or dictated him- 
self. By this incessant application he amassed 
an enormous amount of material during his life, 
consisting of one hundred and sixty volumes of 
notes, which he left to his nephew, Pliny the 
Younger. From these materials he compiled the 
famous Historia Natiiralis. His hunger for in- 
formation was finally the direct cause of his 
death, for he perished in the eruption of Vesuvius 
which destroyed Pompeii and Herculaneum, in 79, 
through his anxiety to examine more closely the 
extraordinary phenomenon. 

Marcus Aurelius, Roman emperor, called the 
"Philosopher," adopted the philosophy of the 
Stoics and remained throughout his life a warm 
adherent of their teachings. He wrote the 
Meditations, in twelve books, in which he 



346 ANCIENT HISTORY 

expressed his opinions on various moral and re- 
ligious subjects, without an attempt at order or 
arrangement. 

Epictetus was for many years a slave. After 
securing his freedom, be became a teacher of the 
philosophy of the Stoics. No works of Epictetus 
are now extant, and a short manual bearing his 
name is said to have been compiled by his pupil 
Arrian, who also wrote the philosophical lectures of 
his master, in eight books. 

Marcus Aurelius and Epictetus were the last 
eminent exponents of the philosophy of Zeno, the 
founder of Stoicism. 

287. Roman Law (See sections 269 to 275). — 
While the Romans were imitators of the Greeks 
in all other branches of literature, in legal and 
political science they were originators and teachers. 
From 100 b.c. to a.d. 250 lived the most famous 
Roman jurists and law-writers, who examined 
and clearly defined all the social and political 
relations. Gaius, Ulpian, Paulus, Papinian, and 
Pomponius were the most prominent. After 
Justinian had become emperor, he at once entered 
upon the work of collecting and arranging in a 
systematic manner the immense material accu- 
mulated in the writings of -these jurists. As 
Rome had become the ruler in three continents, 
there was no imaginable relation in life that in one 
form or the other would not come under the 
cognisance of the Roman government. The re- 
lations of man to his family, to the state, to the 



ROME 347 

gods, were all clearly defined and legislated upon. 
Tribonian, a celebrated lawyer, to whom the task 
of collecting and arranging the enormous material 
was intrusted, completed the work with the help 
of fourteen assistants, five years being spent in 
the arduous labour. The result, the Corpus Juris 
Civilis, has become the foundation for the present 
system of laws of Italy, southern France, and of 
Germany, while it has also become the auxiliary 
law in northern France and Spain. In England 
the laws were also greatly influenced by the Ro- 
man laws. The Corpus Juris Civilis consisted of 
four parts, the Codex, the Pandects, the Institu- 
tiones, and the Novelise. The Codex was a con- 
densed collection of all the laws, instructions to 
judicial officers, digests of opinions on legal sub- 
jects; the Pandects treated of the principles of 
legal science, and is the most interesting part of 
the Corpus Juris, dealing with private law and 
the transactions of every-day life, while the Codex 
has to do with public law. The Institutiones 
were a condensation of the Pandects and the 
Codex, and were intended for an elementary text- 
book for students. The fourth part, the Novelise, 
contained imperial edicts issued after the codifi- 
cation. Copies of the completed work were fur- 
nished to all the law-schools throughout the 
empire. 

Roman law is the greatest contribution of the 
Latin race to civilisation. 

288. Education. — Roman children were sub- 



348 ANCIENT HISTOR Y 

ject to the paterfamilias in an extraordinary man- 
ner, he having absolute control over their life and 
liberty. As a rule the father exercised this power 
by drowning at birth the deformed or sickly child. 
Otherwise the power to put to death was seldom 
exercised, and in later times the law put some 
limitations on this right. The education of the 
Roman child was more practical than that of the 
Greeks. The laws of the Twelve Tables were com- 
mitted to memory, oratory and rhetoric were 
given special attention, as a prominent place in 
public affairs and in the state administration 
could be obtained only by a proficiency in the art 
of public speaking. After the conquest of south- 
ern Italy and of Greece by the Romans, the culti- 
vation of the Greek language and culture became 
general, and the youth of the wealthy were sent 
to Athens to finish their education. At the age 
between fourteen and eighteen the boy discarded 
the purple-hemmed gown for a white garment, to 
indicate his assumption of manhood and of 
Roman citizenship. 

289. Social Position of Woman. — Until she mar- 
ried, the daughter of the Roman family was kept 
in a seclusion as strict as that of the Orientals. 
After marriage she was permitted to appear in 
public, to attend the games and shows in the 
theatres and arenas. While divorce was unusual 
during the early period of Rome, later the husband 
could divorce his wife for the slightest cause, 
or for no cause at all. This disregard for the 



rome 349 

sanctity of the family relations can be assigned as 
one of the factors that made for the degeneration 
of the Romans and for their ultimate downfall. 
290. Gladiators. — Gladiatorial combats had 
their origin in Etruria. They are evidently a sur- 
vival of the practice of putting slaves and prisoners 
to death at the tomb of illustrious chieftains, 
which custom prevailed throughout Greece and 
Rome. In time the slaves were permitted to 
fight and kill each other, this being thought more 
humane than the cold-blooded slaughter. The 
first gladiatorial contest was held in Rome in 
264 b.c, by Marcus and Decimus Brutus, at the 
funeral of their father. On this occasion only 
three pairs of gladiators fought, but the taste for 
these games spread rapidly, and the number of the 
combatants steadily increased. At first the com- 
batants were drawn from either the prisoners of 
war, slaves, or from criminals, and down to the 
times of the empire only the greater malefactors 
were condemned to the arena ; but as the demand 
for victims increased, those tried for smaller 
offences, such as fraud and theft, were included. 
During the first century of the empire it was 
lawful for masters to sell their slaves as gladiators, 
but later this was forbidden. A considerable 
number of freedmen and Roman citizens who had 
squandered their estates bound themselves for 
stated periods, and even men of fortune and birth 
often entered the arena, either from pure love of 
fighting, or to gratify the whim of some emperor, 



350 ANCIENT HISTORY 

and the emperor Commodus himself entered the 
arena in person. Women are said to have occa- 
sionally joined in the combats. Training schools 
for gladiators were established in various cities, 
where they were prepared for the contests. The 
gladiators were divided into classes, according to 
the arms they fought with, and they fought either 
in pairs, or sometimes great companies were 
pitted against each other. Whenever a gladiator 
fell wounded, his life was in the hands of the 
spectators. If his fight had pleased the audience, 
his appeal for mercy, made by outstretching the 
forefinger, was answered by the multitude by 
reaching out their hands with thumbs extended, 
thus saving his life ; but if the criticism of the 
audience was adverse, their thumbs were held 
turned in, and the victor had to execute the 
sentence by completing his work upon the 
wounded adversary. 

The gladiatorial combats exercised a debasing 
influence upon the morals and the genius of the 
Romans. It is a commonplace of morals that by 
the sight of bloodshed a love of bloodshed is pro- 
voked, and thus we must ascribe to the horrors of 
the arena the brutality of the Romans on fre- 
quent occasions, the inhuman treatment of their 
prisoners and slaves, and the frequent suicides 
among these. But on the other hand, many of the 
Roman statesmen, who gave these entertain- 
ments and themselves enjoyed the sight of blood, 
were irreproachable in every other respect, were 



ROME 351 

indulgent fathers, humane generals, and mild 
rulers. Few of the Roman moralists ever raised 
their voices against the gladiatorial contests 
except to disapprove of some, on account of the 
extravagance shown. Cicero commends them and 
Pliny the Younger speaks approvingly of them. 
Seneca is one of the few exceptions, and he pro- 
tested eloquently against the inhumane sport. 

291. Slavery. — The number of slaves in Rome 
during the later republic and the earlier empire 
was probably as great and even greater than the 
number of freemen. The wealthy households 
had a slave for each kind of work to be performed, 
and their price would vary from a few dollars to 
ten or twenty thousand dollars. Greek slaves 
were the most valuable, on account of their intel- 
ligence, which made them serviceable for positions 
calling for especial talent. The slaves were 
recruited chiefly from the prisoners of war, but 
delinquent taxpayers were often sold as slaves, 
and poor persons sometimes sold themselves into 
slavery. Many also were obtained by kidnapping, 
and some of the outlying provinces of Asia and 
Africa were almost depopulated by the slave 
hunters. 

During the latter period of the republic the 
treatment accorded to the slaves was very cruel. 
They were sometimes compelled to work in 
chains, and to sleep in subterranean prisons. 
Old, worn-out, and sick slaves were taken to an 
island in the Tiber, and there left to die of starva- 



352 A NCI EN T HIS TOR Y 

starvation and exposure. This treatment of the 
slaves explains their bitter hatred of their masters, 
which culminated in the servile war of the repub- 
lican period. From the first century of the empire 
dates the growing sentiment of humanity towards 
the slaves. Edicts were issued by various em- 
perors, prohibiting their sale to the traders in 
gladiators, and even severe treatment of them 
was made a trangression of the law. This was 
the beginning of a slow reform, which finally 
resulted in the abolition of slavery in Christian 
Europe. 



Mediaeval History 

From the End of the Western Empire to 

the Discovery of America 

(A.D. 476 to 1492) 



353 



INTRODUCTION 

292. Divisions of History Since the Fall of 
Rome. — The Middle Age is the period from the 
fall of Rome to the discovery of America by 
Columbus, in 1492, and is subdivided into the 
Dark Ages and the Age of Revival; the Modern 
Age extends from the discovery of America to the 
present time, and is again divided into two parts: 
the Era of the Reformation and the Era of the 
Political Revolution. 

293. Modern Civilisation. — Modern civilisation 
is the result of the blending of three important 
elements, namely the Classical, the Hebrew, and 
the Teutonic. 

The Classical element includes everything, save 
Christianity, that Greece and Rome gave to 
mediaeval and modern Europe, in arts, science, 
laws, manners, ideas, and social arrangements, 
which were a valuable gift to the Teutonic race, 
whom we now encounter as the representative 
of civilisation. 

The Hebrew element, by which is understood 
Christianity, has been the most potent factor in 
modern civilisation. By this element the institu- 
tions of Europe were influenced to such an extent 

355 



356 MEDIJEVAL HISTORY 

that its history is in the main a relation of the 
fortunes of the Christian religion. 

The Teutonic element is the Germanic race, 
whose most important characteristics were their 
capacity for civilisation, their love of freedom, 
and, lastly, a quality in marked contrast with the 
later Romans, their reverence for womanhood, 
which sentiment guarded the purity and sanctity 
of the home. 



?Ust a 

^arc,n ( 
' arraco 



THE 




y Home of the\Goths) 






...RUGIANS L0MBARD S 




+0° 5°° 

EUROPE in 485, 

Showing the territories of the 
GOTHIC NATIONS. 

Earlier Seats of the Goths thus-iGothsA.D. 360) 
Scale of Miles 



i Slngidunum 






\ (A ! OSa ^*»*JJ ° ""£» 

rA'„l? rbo (Marseilles) 




1 KINGDOM A * 

OF THE 

<? "*„ n f P 1 D s 

/ ;<3\ ^ •*# 

Ravenna * '• £. >ji ,. 

</*o o ^balona" u <>. n e w m 

D . * Ancona N, ' DACIA M 

ferusiao ^ \ f fi- o PhilippoP ' 1 

(Perugia) V-" \ /> T H R 

Rome<5J Epidamnus" 1 ^ 

°t, (Duraszo) 

*J ~ 
Neapolis° 0<5 




S oAthens "Ep^esas^ 4, 
Corinth. 



THE DARK AGES 

(FROM THE FALL OF ROME, A.D. 476, TO THE 
ELEVENTH CENTURY) 

A — The Teutonic Tribes 

294. Odoacer and the Heruli. — Odoacer was 
the leader of the barbarians who overthrew the 
Western Empire and dethroned Augustulus, a.d. 
476. He took the title of king of Italy and 
reigned for seventeen years, when Italy was 
invaded by the Ostrogoths, under Theodoric. 

Odoacer belonged to the Heruli, a powerful 
German race, who are said to have come originally 
from Scandinavia, but during the reign of Gal- 
lienus, a.d. 260, they appeared on the shores of 
the Black Sea, and participated in the invasion 
of the Roman empire by the Goths. They were 
conquered by the Ostrogoths and later formed a 
part of the army of Attila, with which he invaded 
Italy. After the death of Attila a part of the 
Heruli united with other German tribes, and, 
under the leadership of Odoacer, overthrew the 
Western Empire. 

295. Theodoric Becomes Master of Italy. — 

357 



358 MEDIEVAL HISTORY 

Theodoric, called "the Great," was a king of the 
Ostrogoths. He passed his boyhood at Constan- 
tinople as a hostage and succeeded his father, 
Theodemer, in about 475. 

At first he was an ally of Zeno, the Eastern 
emperor, but later became involved in hostilities. 
At last Zeno gave him permission to invade Italy 
and to expel the usurper Odoacer from the country. 
Theodoric entered Italy in 489, and after defeat- 
ing Odoacer in three great battles, laid siege 
to Ravenna, where Odoacer had sought refuge. 
After a siege of three years Ravenna capitulated 
on condition that Odoacer should rule together 
with Theodoric, but Odoacer was soon afterwards 
murdered by his successful rival. Theodoric 
thus became sole master of Italy, and ruled for 
thirty-three years, until his death, a.d. 526. His 
long reign was very prosperous and beneficent, 
and Italy recovered from the ravages to which 
it had been exposed for so many years. He was 
also a patron of literature, and among his ministers 
were Cassiodorus and Boethius,the two last writers 
that can claim a place in the literature of ancient 
Rome. 

296. The Visigoths and Ostrogoths. — The Visi- 
goths and Ostrogoths were originally one people, 
belonging to the Goths, who dwelt on the Prus- 
sian coast of the Baltic Sea. Later they migrated 
to the south and in the third century made their 
appearance on the Black Sea. During the reign of 
Philippus, a.d. 244, they obtained possession of a 



THE DARK AGES 359 

great part of the Roman province Dacia. In 272 
Aurelian surrendered to them the whole of Dacia, 
and about at this time we find them separated into 
two great divisions, the Eastern Goths, or Ostro- 
goths, and the Western Goths, or Visigoths. 
The Ostrogoths settled in Pannonia, while the 
Visigoths remained north of the Danube. In 410 
the Visigoths under Alaric invaded Rome and 
plundered the city. A few years later the Visi- 
goths settled permanently in the south-west of 
Gaul, and, invading Spain, established there 
another kingdom, which lasted more than two 
centuries, until it was overthrown by the Arabs. 
The Ostrogoths, under Theodoric, in the mean- 
time obtained possession of Italy, where the 
Ostrogothic dynasty reigned until Narses, the 
general of the Eastern emperor Justinian, defeated 
the last king, in 553, when Italy was re-united to 
the empire. 

297. The Vandals. — The Vandals, crowded from 
their seats in Pannonia, crossed Gaul and Spain, 
and in a short time established themselves in 
northern Africa, where they set up a kingdom, 
with Carthage as the capital. Under their king 
Genseric they invaded Italy and plundered Rome 
in 455. Besides conquering all northern Africa, 
they seized Corsica, Sardinia, and the Balearic 
Islands. They were not satisfied to reduce the 
conquered to political serfdom, but endeavoured to 
force upon them their own religion, which was 
Arian Christianity, and they persecuted the ad- 



360 MEDIEVAL HISTORY 

herents of the orthodox religion with unrelent- 
ing cruelty. The Eastern emperor, Justinian, 
sent his general Belisarius to drive the barbarians 
from Africa and to restore the province to the 
Catholic Church. The expedition was successful 
and the kingdom of the Vandals was annexed to 
the Byzantine Empire, in 535. 

298. The Franks. — The Franci, or "the free 
men," were a confederacy of Germanic tribes, 
chief of whom were the Sigambri, Chamavi, 
Ampsivarii, Bructeri, etc. This confederation 
was formed while they dwelt on the lower Rhine. 

The Franks were engaged in frequent wars 
with the Romans, and after the fall of Rome, 
Clovis, the chief of the Franks, attacked the 
Roman governor of Gaul, and gained a decisive 
victory at Soissons, 486. Clovis established his 
court at a small town of the tribe known as 
Parish, which gave the name to the city of Paris. 

Clovis was the chief ruler of the Franks. He 
soon established his authority over the greater 
part of Gaul. After his death there followed 
half a century of discord, during which the suc- 
cessors of Clovis had shown themselves so weak 
and inefficient that they were called "do-no- 
things" in contempt. The Frank kingdom then 
consisted of two divisions, the eastern Austrasia, 
and the western Neustria. In the eastern divi- 
sion the Teutonic, in the western division the 
Roman element was prevalent, and naturally 
there was considerable friction between the two 



THE DARK AGES 36 1 

factions. At the head of each division was a high 
officer of the crown, called mayor of the palace. 
After a long contest, the mayor of the eastern 
division succeeded in overthrowing the weak 
Merovingian kings, and gave to the Frank king- 
dom a new royal line, the Carolingian. 

The chief event of the reign of Clovis was his 
defeat of the Roman governor of Gaul, Syagrius, at 
Soissons, in 486. The familiar story of the "vase 
of Soissons" has its origin in the division of the 
spoils after this battle, when Clovis, who wished 
to retain a particularly beautiful vase, asked the 
Franks to set aside for once the rule that all 
spoils were to be divided by lot. The army gave 
their consent, with the exception of one soldier, 
who broke the vase, at the same time telling the 
king that he could have nothing except what fell 
to him by lot. Clovis, although greatly angered, 
concealed his wrath, but later, while on an ex- 
pedition, when he came to examine the arms of 
the same soldier, he found them rusty and unfit 
for use. While the soldier was stooping to recover 
his battle-ax, which the king had thrown upon the 
ground, Clovis smote him with his weapon, saying: 
"Thus didst thou to the vase at Soissons." 
Clovis was baptised in 496, in fulfilment, it is 
said, of a vow made during a battle. 

299. The Lombards. — The Lombards, so-called 
from their long beards, came from the region of 
the upper Danube, where they had been engaged 
in a war against the Gepidae, in the service of the 



362 MEDIMVAL HISTORY 

Eastern emperor. From this enterprise they 
turned to the conquest of Italy (a.d. 568-774). 
In nearly the same manner as the Ostrogoths had 
done before them, they crossed the Alps, and after 
many years of fighting, they subjugated almost 
all of Italy, with the exception of some of the 
greater cities, among them Rome, Ravenna, 
Naples, and others. They established a sort of 
feudal monarchy, the whole country being par- 
celled out to thirty dukes, who were the vassals of 
the king. The Lombards were, after the Vandals, 
the fiercest of the tribes that had descended upon 
Italy. However, their rough manners and fierce 
disposition were softened through the influence of 
the superior civilisation of the nation among whom 
they had come as conquerors, and in time they 
took on quite a different character. 

The Lombards were Christians of the Arian 
sect at the time of their entry into Italy, but in 
time they became converts to the orthodox faith 
of the Roman Church. Pope Gregory I. bestowed 
upon the Lombard king an iron crown, which was 
said to have been made from one of the nails from 
the cross upon which Christ had suffered. The 
kingdom of the Lombards was established in 568 
and was destroyed by Charlemagne, the greatest 
of the kings of the Franks. Charlemagne con- 
quered Desiderius, the last of the Lombard kings, 
and received from the hands of the Pope the iron 
crown given to the Lombard king. 

The inhabitants of that part of the Italian 



THE DARK AGES 363 

peninsula still called Lombardy show a marked 
contrast in features and colour of hair to the 
inhabitants of southern Italy, indicating their 
Germanic descent. 

300. The Passing of the Anglo-Saxons into Brit- 
ain. — Rome withdrew her legions from Eng- 
land in the fifth century, when she was engaged in 
the fierce struggle with the barbarians, and the 
Britons were left without a defence against the 
attacks of their northern neighbours, the Picts and 
Scots. It is said that Ambrosius, the leader of 
the Roman party which desired the customs and 
arts introduced ^ by the Romans to be retained, 
appealed to ^tius, the Roman governor of Gaul, 
for aid, but if the appeal was made, it bore no 
fruit, as the Roman legions were needed in the 
contests with Alaric and Attila. The second 
party in England, comprising the rural popula- 
tion, desired the nation to return to the ancient 
customs, and this partition among themselves 
greatly reduced their ability to plan an effective 
defence against the untamed tribes of Wales, the 
Picts and Scots from the north, the Celtic pirates 
who descended upon the shores of England from 
the west, and the German corsairs, who came 
from the east. The British prince A r ortigern 
then committed the unwise step of inviting the 
help of the Saxons, and by bribes of money and 
promises of land gained over two Jutish chiefs, 
Hengest and Horsa. Their landing is placed in 
the year 449, when they established themselves 



364 MEDIEVAL HISTORY 

at the mouth of the Thames. A great number of 
new immigrants then entered England, after 
hearing the reports of the richness of the soil and 
the delightfulness of the climate, and the Britons 
now became alarmed, because of the increasing 
numbers of the strangers, whom they had invited, 
and they realised their mistake. The Britons 
refusing to make good their promises of land to the 
newcomers, there ensued a fierce warfare of 
nearly forty years, when the first Teutonic king- 
dom in Britain was established, that of Kent. Of 
the two leaders, Horsa was killed in a battle with 
Vortigern in 455, after which Hengest and his son 
assumed the title of kings. The South-Saxon 
settlement came next, after the Jutish settlement 
at Kent, in 477. The West-Saxon kingdom was 
established by Cedric and Cynric in 495, on the 
coast of what is now Hampshire. Twenty-four 
years after they had landed, they considered their 
position strong enough and assumed the kingly 
title. This was the beginning of the royal line of 
the West-Saxons, which became the royal line of 
England. The East-Saxon settlement was estab- 
lished in the first half of the sixth century. Of the 
Anglian powers there were four. The East- Angles 
occupied the land north of the East-Saxons, and 
north of the Humber arose the two kingdoms of 
Bernicia and Deira. Very little is known of the 
conquest of the Britons in central England. A 
number of Anglian tribes, which had kept an 
independent existence, were brought under the rule 



THE DARK AGES 365 

of a single power which took the name of Mercia, 
and gradually spread over all central England. 
The date of the beginning of the Mercian kingdom 
is placed at 584. For about two hundred years 
there were perpetual wars between the different 
kingdoms for supremacy, and finally Egbert, king 
of Wessex (West-Saxon), brought all the other 
states into tributary condition and became in 
fact the first king of England in 827, although he 
never assumed the title. 

B — Spread of Christianity 

301. The Conversion of the First Tribes. — The 

Goths were the first converts to the Christian 
religion beyond the limits of the Roman Empire. 
When the Visigoths were pressed by the Huns and 
asked permission of the Eastern emperor Valens 
to cross the Danube, he acceded, but one of the 
conditions upon which this permission rested 
was their acknowledging their belief in the 
Christian faith, which condition was fulfilled by 
the Visigoths. 

Ulfilas, or Wulfila, a Gothic bishop and the 
translator of the Bible into Gothic, was born 
in 311 and died at Constantinople in 381. In 
341 he was consecrated at Antioch as bishop of 
the Arian Visigoths. He translated the Bible 
from a Greek original, but is said to have omitted 
the Book of Kings. For this translation he in- 
vented an alphabet, by supplementing the Greek 



366 MEDIEVAL HISTORY 

alphabet in necessary instances from the Gothic 
runes. The translation of Ulfilas is most valuable 
as a help to the study of the Teutonic languages, it 
being three centuries earlier than any other speci- 
men preserved to this day. The same place is 
assigned to the Gothic of Ulfilas in the study of the 
unwritten history of the Germanic races, as to 
Sanskrit in the study of the development of the 
Indo-European family of nations. 

In the year 496 Clovis was converted from 
paganism to Christianity. In 493, he married the 
niece of the king of Burgundy, Clotilda , a Christian 
princess, and it was largely due to her influence 
that the king's mind was gradually won from the 
superstitions of the North. The tradition says 
that in a crisis at the battle of Tolbiac, when not 
only the kingdom, but the life of Clovis as well 
was at stake, he prayed aloud to the " God of 
Clotilda," and victory attended his arms. At 
this time the doctrines of Christianity had already 
taken a foothold among the Franks, and when 
the king announced his intention of accepting the 
religious belief of his queen, the course was ap- 
plauded by his chiefs, instead of being illy received 
as had been expected. In the year 496 Clovis 
was publicly baptised in the cathedral of Rheims, 
which occasion the priests made one of exceptional 
splendour, and three thousand of the principal 
Franks were baptised at the same time. 

In 596 forty monks, under the leadership of St. 
Augustine, were sent by Pope Gregory to win 



THE DARK AGES 367 

England from paganism to Christianity. Ethel- 
bert of Kent was at this time at the head of several 
of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms. His wife being a 
Frankish princess and a Christian, he was per- 
suaded to listen to the embassy, and the success of 
St. Augustine was so great that in a short time 
Ethelbert and ten thousand of his subjects were 
converted to the Christian religion and baptised 
in the new faith. In 627 St. Augustine succeeded 
in converting Edwin, the king of the Northumbri- 
ans, who ordered the temples of Woden and Thor 
burned, and the king and his people were baptised 
and confessed the Christian faith. 

302. The Conflict between the Roman and the 
Celtic Churches. — The jealousy which had been 
steadily growing between the Latin Church and the 
Celtic, because the latter was sending its mission- 
aries into foreign countries to convert the people 
to the Celtic Church, which, although Catholic, 
differed from the Roman in the matter of some 
ceremonies, such as- the time of keeping Easter 
and the mode of the tonsure, finally developed into 
the bitterest rivalry and strife. In order to settle 
the quarrel, Oswy, king of Northumbria, called a 
synod composed of members of both parties at 
the monastery of Whitby, in 664. Oswy gave his 
final decision in favour of the Roman Church. 
England was quickly won to the Roman side, and 
the Celtic churches and the monasteries of Wales 
and Ireland and Scotland soon conformed to the 
Roman standard and custom. 



368 MEDIMVAL HISTORY 

303. Rise and Influence of Monasticism. — Mo- 
nasticism denotes a life of seclusion from the 
world, in order to further the interests of the soul. 
The principal idea of the system is that the body- 
is a weight upon the spirit, and that it is an im- 
portant duty therefore to mortify the flesh. The 
monastic system embraced two classes, the 
Hermits, who lived solitary lives in desolate 
places, and the Cenobites, or monks, who formed 
communities and lived under a common roof. 
To the devotion and zeal of the missionaries the 
Church owes most of her victories over the pagan- 
ism of the barbarians. They were teachers, and 
their monasteries were the seats of learning during 
the Middle Ages. Through their agency many 
manuscripts that would otherwise have become 
lost were preserved and copied. The influence of 
monasticism was far-reaching and beneficent in 
many respects, but very often the monasteries 
also became the nurseries of indolence and pro- 
fligacy, the tendency of the entire system having 
been to cast contempt upon woman and to de- 
grade domestic relations. The system withdrew 
some of the ablest men from public life at a time 
when their services were very much needed, and 
another influence of monasticism was the building 
up of the colossal power of the Papacy. ' The most 
famous of the orders was that of the Benedictines, 
which at one time numbered 40,000 abbeys. 

304. Trials by Ordeal.— Among the barbarians 
guilt or innocence was ascertained by the "trials 



THE DARK AGES 369 

by ordeal." The ordeals were the ordeal by fire, 
the ordeal by water, and the ordeal by battle. 
The trial by fire consisted in either taking into 
the hand a red-hot iron, or in walking blindfolded 
with bare feet over a row of hot ploughshares. If 
the person escaped unharmed, he was pronounced 
innocent. The trial by water was made either by 
thrusting an arm into boiling water, or by throw- 
ing the person into a stream or pond. -If, in the 
first instance, the arm showed no signs of injury 
within three days, the person was declared inno- 
cent, or if, in the latter instance, the person sank, 
he was deemed without guilt, as otherwise the 
water would have rejected him. The trial by 
battle had its origin in the custom which per- 
mitted a person to swear that he was innocent, 
provided he could get a sufficient number of his 
friends to swear that he was telling the truth. 
This privilege was liable to abuse, and in many 
instances the injured person had no other redress 
except to challenge the perjurer to a solemn 
judicial duel. 

305. The Most Important Emperors of the East. — 
They were Justinian (a.d. 527-565) and He- 
raclius (a.d. 610-641). To the reign of Jus- 
tinian has been given the name of the "Era of 
Justinian." During his reign Africa was re- 
covered from the Vandals and Italy from the 
Goths. His most important work was the com- 
pilation and arranging of the laws and the publi- 
cation of the Corpus Juris Civilis. In the midst 



370 MEDIAEVAL HISTORY 

of his brilliant reign an awful pestilence broke 
out, which is said to have caused the death of 
millions of people. 

During the reign of Heraclius, Chosroes II., 
the king of Persia, invaded Syria, Egypt, and Asia 
Minor. Heraclius, in order to compel Chosroes 
to recall his armies, boldly marched into the heart 
of Persia, where he avenged the insults heaped by 
the unbelievers upon the Christian churches, by 
overturning their altars and quenching the sacred 
flames of the fire worshippers. The contest was 
finally decided in favour of Heraclius at the battle 
of Nineveh, a.d. 627, where the Persian army was 
almost entirely annihilated. Chosroes died within 
a few days, and the new Persian emperor nego- 
tiated a treaty with Heraclius. The subsequent 
years of his reign he spent in inactivity, which 
resulted in the loss of Syria, Palestine, Meso- 
potamia, and Egypt, Heraclius living to see the 
standards of the false prophet planted within 
sight of the ramparts of Constantinople. 

C — The Moslem Power 

306. Mohammed and the Saracens. — Asia has 
given birth to the great religions of the world. 
The rise and spread of the last of these religions is 
now brought before our observation, revealing a 
marked contrast ; as Christ based his teachings on 
the principle of Love, Mohammed adopted that 
of Force. 



THE DARK AGES 371 

307. Arabia before Mohammed. — Arabia was a 
land of religious freedom, and although the pre- 
vailing religion among the Arabians was a wor- 
ship of the heavenly bodies, similar to that of the 
ancient Chaldasans and Babylonians, many other 
creeds were represented by exiles, who had sought 
and found there the toleration they were refused 
elsewhere. The Jews were especially numerous, 
and from them, no doubt, Mohammed learned 
most of the doctrines he taught. 

308. The Prophet's Life, Flight, and Death. — 
Mohammed, the founder of Islam ("submission," 
namely, to God), was born at Mecca, a.d. 569. 
He was the son of Abdallah and Amina, of 
the family of Hashim, one of the noblest of the 
tribe of Koreish, who were the custodians of the 
sacred shrine of the Caaba. Mohammed was 
brought up in the desert by a Bedouin woman 
named Halima, and at the age of thirteen was sent 
to accompany a merchandising expedition to 
Syria, on which he came, for the first time, in con- 
tact with Jews and Christians. At the age of 
twenty-five he entered the service of the widow 
Khadijah, and went on a second expedition in her 
interest. On these travels he absorbed a know- 
ledge of the teachings of the Jews and Christians. 
After his return he married Khadijah, who was 
fifteen years his senior. In 605 he attained some 
influence by settling a dispute about the rebuild- 
ing of the Caaba. At this time the impressions he 
had received on his travels, and the knowledge he 



372 MEDIMVAL HISTORY 

had gained of the teachings of the Jews and the 
Christians, and of Arabic lore, began strongly to 
engage his mind. He frequently retired to iso- 
lated places, especially a cave on Mount Hira, 
north of Mecca, and passed long vigils in medita- 
tion and religious exercises. He was then about 
forty years old, and the mental struggles he 
passed through are said to have been so severe 
that he even repeatedly contemplated suicide. 
During one of these lonely contemplations he was 
visited by the angel Gabriel, who ordered him to 
read from a scroll he held before him the words 
with which begins the 96th sura of the Koran: 
" Read, in the name of thy Lord, who hath created 
all things, who hath created man of congealed 
blood." It is possible that Mohammed was sub- 
ject to illusions of sights and sounds, but it is as 
difficult to assume that he was sincere throughout, 
or that he was self-deceived, as it is to condemn 
him as an impostor. His wife, to whom he com- 
municated the nature of his visions, at first was in 
doubt whether to ascribe them to a good or to an 
evil angel, but she finally acknowledged the divine 
mission of her husband and became his first con- 
vert to a faith which was summed up in the 
sentence : " There is but one God, and Mohammed 
is his prophet." 

After the lapse of some time came a second 
vision, and thereafter they followed each other in 
rapid succession. His first successor, Abubekr, 
whose daughter Mohammed later married, also 



THE DARK AGES 373 

became converted, and gradually he attracted 
about fifty adherents, who rallied around him 
when after some years of preaching a powerful 
party at Mecca conceived a plot against his life. 
Mohammed had to seek safety in flight, and, 
accompanied by Abubekr, fled to Medina, in 622. 
From the 15th of July of that year dates the 
beginning of the Mohammedan calendar, in com- 
memoration of the flight of Mohammed, or the 
"hejira," which occurred on the 20th of June, 
622. Thus far Mohammed had been a religious 
preacher and persuader. His flight from Mecca 
marks a turning point in his activity, and he 
became a legislator and warrior. In 623 he built 
the first Mosque at Medina, and in the same year 
married Ayesha, the daughter of Abubekr. He 
then led his followers against Mecca and defeated 
them at Bedr. He also began a crusade against 
the Jews, who refused to recognise him as the 
"greater prophet" promised by Moses, and drove 
one tribe out of Medina, and ordered all the men 
of another massacred. In 625 Mohammed and 
his followers were defeated by the Meccans in the 
battle of Ohud. The following years were filled 
with various expeditions, and one tribe after the 
other submitted to Mohammed, so that at the 
time of his death, in 632, the Arabs under his 
leadership had already begun their marvellous 
career of conquest, which was not stayed until 
the greater portion of the Roman and Persian 
empires had been subjugated. 



374 MEDIEVAL HISTORY 

309. The Koran. — The Koran is the sacred 
book of the Mohammedans, and is the foundation 
upon which rests the Mohammedan religion. It is 
held in the highest veneration by the Mohammed- 
ans, and, when read, must be kept on a stand 
elevated from the floor. No one is allowed to 
touch it without first performing a legal ablution. 
The substance of the Koran is held to be eternal 
and uncreated. It is said that for a long time the 
contents of the Koran were unwritten and were 
carried in the memory. When many of the best 
reciters had been killed, Abubekr had the differ- 
ent suras written down. 

The Koran consists of 114 chapters, not 
numbered, and each has a separate title. The 
teachings of the Koran are largely drawn from 
Jewish and Christian sources, and Moses and 
Jesus are reckoned among the prophets. Among 
the biblical narratives are interwoven rabbinical 
legends. The contents of the Koran fall into three 
divisions, precepts, admonitions, and histories, 
but they are not arranged in historical order. 
As a rule, the shorter siiras which contain the 
theology of Islam, belong to the Meccan 
period ; the longer suras, relating to social 
duties and relationships, belong to the period of 
Medina. 

As to the doctrines of the Koran, the main 
articles are as follows: The Mussulman must 
believe from the heart, confess with the tongue 
and with a steadfast mind affirm, that there is 



THE DARK AGES 375 

only one God, Lord and Governor of the universe ; 
that God has sent His prophet Mohammed with 
the sacred and divine law, which is contained in 
the Koran; that, excepting God Himself, who 
always was and always shall be, everything shall 
one day be annihilated ; that the first of all others 
whom God shall revive in heaven shall be the 
angel of death ; and that he will at that time recall 
all the souls, re-uniting them to the respective 
bodies to which each belonged, some of which 
shall be consigned to glory, and others to torment ; 
that there will be a day of judgment at which 
Mohammed shall with success intercede for his 
people, but that each and every one will be re- 
quired to give an account concerning the good or 
evil he transacted in this world; that all these 
actions will be weighed in the balance, and that 
those judged righteous, when reaching the sharp- 
edged bridge, the passage whereof cannot be 
avoided by any one, will pass over it swifter than 
a flash of lightning, but the impious and ungodly 
will fall and precipitate themselves into the fires 
of hell. The Koran also teaches the practice of 
four virtues. The first is prayer, and each 
Mussulman is required five times each day to 
turn his face towards Mecca in prayer; the 
second is alms-giving; the third, the keeping of 
the fast of Ramadan; and the fourth, the making 
of a pilgrimage to Mecca. 

310. Mohammed's Successors. — Mohammed was 
succeeded by his father-in-law Abubekr, as he 



376 MEDIEVAL HISTORY 

left behind no son. Abubekr was chosen to the 
position, with the title of Caliph, although many 
claimed that the place belonged to AH, a cousin of 
Mohammed, and his son-in-law. After the death 
of Mohammed, many of the tribes he had sub- 
jugated broke away from the restrictions he had 
placed upon them and refused to pay the stipu- 
lated tribute. Abubekr at once set out to sup- 
press the revolts, and to oppose several impostors, 
who set themselves up as prophets. Khaled, the 
general of Abubekr, defeated the most dangerous 
of these self-commissioned apostles, and acted 
with such swiftness and energy that he gained the 
title of "the Sword of God." 

After the suppression of the rebellions, Abubekr 
was free to carry out the injunction of the Prophet 
to carry his teachings by force of arms into all 
countries. He first turned his attention to Syria. 
His appeal to the Faithful was responded to with 
great alacrity and he assembled a large army. 
The Mohammedans were successful from the 
beginning and place after place was captured until 
Damascus was besieged. Heraclius, who was at 
Antioch, sent 100,000 men to the relief of the city, 
but they were met by the Saracens and defeated. 
Soon after, a second army, numbering 70,000 men, 
was sent and also defeated. Damascus was 
captured, and the Saracens turned toward Pales- 
tine. Abubekr died on the day of the capture of 
Damascus, and appointed Omar his successor. 
The military operations were continued without 



THE DARK AGES 377 

interruption. After the fall of Jerusalem, Antioch 
and Aleppo were besieged and soon taken by the 
Saracens, who in the next few years subjugated 
Mesopotamia, and captured all the fortified cities 
that had been the defences of the Roman empire 
against the Persians. Soon all of Asia Minor was 
in their power and they held undisputed sway 
over the country to the Black Sea and the Helles- 
pont. While the generals Khaled and Amrou 
were thus engaged in Syria, Said, another general 
of the Caliph, attacked Ctesiphon, the capital of 
the Persian empire, took the city after a feeble 
resistance, and the authority of the Saracens was 
established throughout Persia. 

The Caliph Omar was succeeded in 644 by 
Othman, who carried Islam into the countries 
of Central Asia, the most important of the tribes 
that accepted the religion of Islam being the 
Turks, who were destined to take up the sword in 
the defence of the Crescent when the power of the 
Saracens was waning. After the conquest of 
Syria, Amrou, the successful general, was sent by 
the Caliph to conquer Egypt. Pelusium was 
taken after a short siege, but Alexandria made a 
stubborn defence for one year, when, seeing the 
hopelessness of the struggle, the defenders loaded 
their treasures into ships, and abandoned the city 
to the Saracens. Heraclius died shortly after the 
taking of Alexandria, but the successors to the 
throne of the Eastern empire made three attempts 
to wrench the city from the hands of the Saracens, 



378 MEDIEVAL HISTORY 

who finally destroyed the fortifications to prevent 
an occupation by the Romans. 

After the assassination of Othman Ca.d. 655), 
Ali, the son-in-law of Mohammed, was declared 
Caliph. No sooner was he placed in the Caliphate 
than he was forced to send an army against 
Moawiyah, who had set up a rival Court at 
Damascus, and who was supported by the able 
general, Amrou, the conqueror of Syria and Egypt. 
Three men then entered into a conspiracy to kill 
Ali, Moawiyah, and Amrou, in order to remove the 
causes for the dispute, but the latter two escaped 
and Ali was the only victim. After his death, the 
pretender Moawiyah was acknowledged as Caliph. 

311. Dissensions, and Final Dismemberment of the 
Caliphate. — As soon as Moawiyah was placed 
in power (a.d. 661), he caused the sons of Ali, 
Hassan and Hosain, to be murdered. This cir- 
cumstance, together with the feud that had 
originated when Abubekr was put in as successor 
to Mohammed, caused the division of the Moham- 
medans into two factions, and finally brought 
about the dismemberment of the Caliphate. 
Notwithstanding these internal dissensions, the 
conquests of the Mohammedans had been steadily 
going on. All Europe was beginning to feel alarm 
at the spread of the power of the Saracens, and 
soldiers were sent to protect the city of Carthage, 
and to help to arrest the progress of the Moslems. 
However, Carthage was taken, the defenders were 
driven to their ships, and the city was burned. 



THE DARK AGES 379 

The power of the Caliphs was now established 
from the Bosporus to the Straits of Gibraltar, 
in the short space of fifty years after the death 
of Mohammed. In 668 already, only thirty-six 
years after the death of the Prophet, Constanti- 
nople had been besieged by the Saracens, but the 
city withstood a siege that lasted six years and the 
Moslems were compelled to retreat. Fifty years 
after the first siege the city was again attacked by 
a large Moslem army, but the Arabs were again 
repulsed and Constantinople remained in the 
hands of the Christians for several centuries 
longer. While the Arabs were meeting with no 
successes in their attacks upon Europe from the 
eastern extremity of their possessions, they gained 
more favourable results at the western, where they 
put themselves in possession of Spain in a short 
campaign which terminated in the battle of 
Xeres, a.d. 711, where Roderic, the last king of 
the Visigoths, was hopelessly defeated. This part 
of Europe remained lost to Christendom for nearly 
eight hundred years. As soon as Spain was sub- 
jugated by the Arabs, great multitudes of colonists 
from Arabia, Syria, and North Africa settled in 
the peninsula, which, within a very short time, 
became, in the provinces of Seville, Cordova, 
Toledo, and Granada, thoroughly Arabic in 
manners, dress, language, and religion. The 
Arabs next crossed the Pyrenees and established 
themselves upon the plains of France. This 
invasion was looked upon by all Christian Europe 



380 MEDIAEVAL HISTORY 

with the greatest alarm, but in 732 the Franks 
with their allies, tinder the leadership of Charles, 
afterward called Martel, the Hammer, met the 
invaders and administered to them a crushing 
defeat. Eighteen years after this battle, the 
dynasty of the Ommiades, established by the 
usurper Moawiyah, was overthrown by adherents 
of the house of Ali, and they succeeded in estab- 
lishing a new dynasty, that of the Abassides, so- 
called from Abbas, an uncle of Mohammed. This 
dynasty founded the city of Bagdad, on the lower 
Tigris, and there established the capital of the 
Caliphate. The family of the Ommiades was 
proscribed and slaughtered, but a youth named 
Abdelrahman, escaped and made his way to Spain, 
where he was hailed with acclamations by the 
Arabs, who proclaimed him Caliph of Cordova, 
and declared themselves independent of the 
Abassides. The internal dissensions resulted in a 
third division, when the party of the Fatimedes, so- 
called from Fatima, the daughter of Mohammed, 
gained a foothold in Northern Africa, a.d. 970 
they wrested Egypt from the Abassides and 
founded Cairo, on the Nile, which they made their 
capital. Thus the empire of the Saracens was 
divided into three Caliphates, independent of 
each other, the Caliphates of Bagdad, Cairo, and 
Cordova. 

312. Effects of Mohammedanism. — Under the 
early Abassides, especially during the reign of 
Haroun-al-Raschid (a.d. 786-809), called the 



THE DARK AGES 38 1 

golden age of the Caliphate, Bagdad became the 
centre of culture and refinement, and Cordova was 
also renowned for the splendour and luxury repre- 
sented at the Court of the Caliph. Civilisation 
owes to the Saracens the preservation and trans- 
mission of much that was valuable in the science 
of the Greeks and Persians. They improved 
trigonometry and algebra, and from India intro- 
duced the decimal system of notation. On the 
other hand, the influence of the teachings of the 
Koran was unfavourable to liberty, progress, and 
improvement, which is best illustrated by the 
position occupied to-day in the order of nations 
by the people who accepted the teachings of 
Mohammed. 

313. Invasion of France; Battle of Tours (a.d. 
732). — When the Saracens crossed the Pyre- 
nees and established themselves on the plains 
of Gaul, their advent was viewed by all Christian 
Europe with the greatest alarm. The plan of the 
Saracens was to subjugate the Franks and their 
allies, then to cross the Rhine and follow the 
Danube to its mouth, conquering all opposing 
tribes. On the shores of the Hellespont, the 
armies of the Faithful were to meet after having 
completed the conquest of the world and realised 
the dreams of Mithridates and Caesar. One 
hundred years after the death of the Prophet, in 
732, the army of the Saracens and the combined 
forces of the Franks and their allies met upon the 
plain of Tours, in the centre of Gaul (between the 



382 MEDIEVAL HISTORY 

cities of Poictiers and Tours) . This battle was to 
decide whether Christendom was to be succeeded 
by Mohammedanism; it was to decide the ques- 
tion of superiority between the Indo-European 
and the Semitic families of mankind. The battle 
raged for six days, and not until the seventh day 
was a decisive result obtained. Both armies 
fought with great valour, and the leader of the 
Saracens, Abderrahman, fell during the battle. 
The Mohammedans were defeated and their losses 
on the battle-field were appalling, contemporary 
accounts placing the number of killed at the 
impossible figure of 375,000. The battle of Tours 
checked the career of Arabic conquest in Western 
Europe. 

D — Restoration of the Western Empire 

314. Charles Martel and Pepin " Le Bref." — 

Charles Martel (the "Hammer) was Duke of 
Austrasia and mayor of the palace of the Mero- 
vingian kings of the Franks. Although he exer- 
cised all the authority of the kingly office for a 
weak sovereign, he never took advantage of his 
position but remained loyal to his imbecile 
master. His most important achievement was 
the victory he won at Tours over the Saracens. 

Pepin was the son and successor of Charles 
Martel. He was not satisfied with the possession 
of the authority of the king alone, but he wished 
to become king in name as well as in fact. He 



THE DARK AGES 383 

therefore sent an embassy to Rome, to represent 
to the Pope that it was the wish of the Franks that 
the Merovingian kings should be dethroned and 
the crown given to Pepin, who, with his father 
Charles Martel, had done much for the Franks 
and Christendom. The Pope, who was mindful 
of recent favours he had received at the hands of 
Pepin, readily gave his consent, saying that he 
deemed it reasonable that the one who was king 
in power should also be king in name. Chilperic, 
the last of the Merovingian kings, was then deposed 
and sent to a monastery, and Pepin was crowned 
King of the Franks, 752. He was the first king of 
the Carolingian line, which name is given to it by 
the son of Pepin, Charlemagne. 

315. Charlemagne. — Charles the Great has been 
pronounced the most imposing personage between 
the fall of Rome and the fifteenth century. In 
the boldness of his plans, and in the swiftness of 
execution, he is compared to Alexander, and to 
Peter the Great of Russia. He founded schools, 
regulated manufactures and commerce, built a 
navy, collected libraries, reformed the law, and 
established the first European college at Paris. 
During his reign he engaged in fifty-two military 
expeditions, but he was not only a warrior, but 
also a statesman and reformer, although it must be 
said that he sometimes employed means which 
were unscrupulous and harsh, though usually for 
desirable ends. Besides, his domestic life was 
such that it prevented his being placed on the 



384 MEDIMVAL HISTORY 

Roman calendar of the saints. At the time of 
his death, his dominions embraced the greater 
part of Western Europe, with the exception of 
Spain and Britain. Some of his important cam- 
paigns were the war against the Saxons, which, 
although begun in 772, was not terminated until 
a.d. 804, when it ended with the complete sub- 
jugation of the Saxons, who also adopted the 
Christian religion. At the instance of the Pope, 
he made war in 773 upon Desiderius, King of 
Lombardy, who was threatening Rome. Charle- 
magne took Pavia in 774, and in the same year 
annexed Lombardy to the Frank kingdom. In 
778 he led an expedition against the Arabs in 
Spain, which ended in the destruction of his rear- 
guard, under Roland, in the passes of Roncesvalles. 
In 800 , Charlemagne was appealed to by the Pope 
for aid against a hostile party at Rome. He 
promptly responded and summarily punished the 
disturbers of the peace of the Church. In grati- 
tude for his service he was crowned by the Pope as 
Emperor of the Romans, but while he was thus 
declared the rightful successor of Caesar and Con- 
stantine, the Greeks wholly disregarded the act 
of the Pope, and continued to elect their own 
emperors, as heretofore. From this time on for 
some centuries there were two Roman emperors, 
who both claimed to be the rightful successors of 
Caesar, and denounced each other as pretender 
and impostor. Charlemagne enjoyed the imperial 
dignity only fourteen years, and died in 814. He 



THE DARK AGES 385 

was buried at Aachen, in a tomb which he had 
built for himself. 

316. The Papacy's Claim to Temporal Power. — 

The part taken by Pope Zacharias in the mat- 
ter of the deposition of the last of the Mero- 
vingian kings of the Franks and the elevation of 
Pepin to the dignity of King, was afterward 
magnified by the Popes, who quoted it as a pre- 
cedent, on the strength of which they claimed 
the right of deposing for heresy or misrule the 
temporal princes of the earth. In 754, Pope 
Stephen II., who was troubled by the Lombards, 
besought the aid of Pepin against the barbarians. 
Pepin, to return the favour rendered him by a 
former head of the Church, quickly crossed the 
Alps with a large army, and, after expelling the 
Lombards from the territory they had acquired, he 
presented the recaptured provinces to the Pope. 
It is probable that Pepin did not intend to convey 
the absolute sovereignty to the Pope, but after a 
time the Popes claimed this, and began to exercise 
the powers of independent temporal rulers within 
the limits of the territory donated to them. 

E — The Northmen 

317. The Northmen. — ■ Northmen, Norsemen, 
Scandinavians, these are the different names ap- 
plied in a general way to the early inhabitants of 
Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. They were near 
kin to the Angles, Saxons, Franks, and Goths, and 



386 MEDIAEVAL HISTORY 

were Teutons in language, manners, religion, and 
spirit. The time when they entered the northern 
peninsula cannot be definitely stated, but it is 
believed that they arrived there long before Caesar 
invaded Gaul. 

The Northmen first make their appearance in 
history as pirates on the coasts of Northern Europe. 
Commencing with the ninth century, they made 
swift descents every summer upon the exposed 
shores of Germany, Gaul, and Britain, and retired 
for the winter to their northern homes. In time 
they became audacious enough to winter in the 
places they visited, and soon all the shores of the 
countries mentioned became dotted with their 
wintering stations and settlements. Having se- 
cured a foothold, they attracted other bands from 
the north, and the stations developed into colonies. 
Gradually they wrested the surrounding country 
from the natives, and in the course of time the 
settlements became real kingdoms. The most 
noteworthy characteristic of the Northmen was 
the facility with which they laid aside their own 
manners, habits, ideas, and institutions, and 
adopted those of the country in which they had 
established themselves. Thus, in Russia they 
became Russians, in France Frenchmen, in Eng- 
land Englishmen. 

318. The Inroads of the Northmen in France and 
Britain. — In the ninth century the Northmen 
colonised Iceland, and in the tenth they estab- 
lished settlements in Greenland. It is said that 



THE DARK AGES 387 

the Northmen reached America as early as the 
eleventh century and established some settle- 
ments, but there are no certain remains in proof 
of this theory. Northern Gaul fell completely 
into the hands of the Northmen and takes from 
them the name of Normandy, and Eastern Eng- 
land, crowded with settlers from Denmark, 
became known as Danelagh. The principal causes 
for the migrations of the Northmen were : their in- 
herent love for wild adventure ; the establishment 
of kingdoms in Denmark and in Norway, which 
did not give them enough freedom, and therefore 
led many to seek it in foreign lands ; and the exist- 
ence of a sort of law of primogeniture, which 
gave everything to the eldest son, leaving to the 
younger sons no other alternative but to seek their 
fortunes on the seas. These younger sons of royal 
families became leaders of the expeditions, and be- 
cause of their birth were given the title of Kings. 
In the ninth century, the Northmen began to 
make descents upon the English coast. They 
gradually gained possession of large parts of the 
land and inflicted cruel treatment upon the 
English, burning their churches, and plundering 
and murdering without restraint. They began 
to make permanent settlements in Britain, and 
for a time it looked as if the entire English 
populace was to be driven from the island or 
annihilated. Their progress was somewhat stayed 
when Alfred came to the throne in Wessex, a.d. 
871. King Alfred fought against the Northmen 



388 MEDIEVAL HISTORY 

for six years, but each year saw his possessions 
grow smaller, and Alfred and his followers were 
even compelled to seek safety in the woods and 
marshes. After a time success attended them 
and the Northmen were driven back, and although 
they still retained possession of the north-eastern 
half of the land, they were forced to acknowl- 
edge nominally the authority of the English king. 
After the death of Alfred his successors fought 
the Northmen for a full century, but in the end the 
Northmen gained the mastery and Canute, the 
king of Denmark, became King of England. After 
a reign of almost perfect peace and prosperity 
for England, Canute died in 1035. After his 
death. the great kingdom at once fell to pieces. 
His sons, whom he left in England, were un- 
worthy of him, and after the death of Hardi- 
canute, in 1042, the old English line was restored 
and Edward, called the Confessor, was made king. 
In the beginning of the ninth century the North- 
men also descended upon the coasts of Gaul. 
Their progress there is simply a repetition of their 
exploits in England. At last, in 918, King 
Charles, called the Simple, granted to the North- 
men a considerable portion of the country in the 
north-west of Gaul. In a very short time the 
barbarians adopted the language, customs, and 
the religion of the French, and this transforma- 
tion took place sooner than in England, because 
in France they were more scattered and therefore 
in closer contact with the natives. 



THE AGE OF REVIVAL 

(from the opening of the eleventh century 
to the discovery of america by chris- 
topher columbus, in 1492) 

A — Teutonic Political Institutions 

319. Early Institutions. — The Teutons origin- 
ally were the members of a Germanic tribe which 
is supposed to have settled near the mouth of the 
river Elbe some time before the fourth century b.c. 
This tribe, together with the Cimbri, invaded 
Roman territory, and ultimately the name was 
applied to the Germanic peoples of Europe in 
general. 

Among the Teutons kinship was the foundation 
of social organisation, and the unit of government 
was the family. The tribes were settled in vil- 
lages which administered their own government. 
The lands belonging to the tribe were the prop- 
erty of the community, and were assigned to the 
freemen of the tribe, with the privilege to cultivate 
them for their own individual benefit, and the 
magisterial powers rested with chiefs elected in 
the village meeting, which latter body exercised 

389 



390 MEDIAEVAL HISTORY 

the judicial authority. The tribes consisted of 
nobles, freemen, and the unfree members, who 
were either excluded from political privilege 
while holding lands as serfs of the freemen, or 
were actual slaves. 

320. Leagues of Villages. — The villages often 
combined into leagues, as the communities 
established branches which still retained some 
connection with and allegiance to the mother 
tribe, and these leagues chose one chief to admin- 
ister the government of the combined villages. 
Where such league was not in vogue, the village 
meeting exercised powers beyond the election 
of the magistrates, the administration of justice, 
and the management of the lands, and had the 
power to declare war. The military leaders were 
men of ability and courage, around whom the 
younger and more adventurous element rallied 
for expeditions in search of fighting and plunder, 
thus forming an association, the comilatus of the 
leader, bound to the latter by ties of personal 
allegiance, receiving from him their military 
equipment and sustenance, in turn giving to him 
such service as served to add to his social prestige 
and position. 

321. The Effect of the Contact with Rome. — 
The Teutonic tribes came into contact with the 
Romans during the invasions of the latter into 
Germany, and thus became exposed to the in- 
fluence of Roman institutions, this being espe- 
cially marked in the case of the tribes settled along 



THE AGE OF REVIVAL 39 1 

the Danube and the Rhine, who were the immedi- 
ate neighbours of Rome. Besides, many Teutons 
as individuals entered the domains of Rome seek- 
ing either personal advantage, or, perhaps, ad- 
ventures, and established a medium of intercourse 
long before the contact between the two peoples 
became one of armed conflict. After the Teutonic 
successes over the Romans were established, 
Teutonic and Roman institutions existed for a 
time alongside of each other, the Teutons bring- 
ing with them into the Roman world their own 
customs and practices, influencing, to some extent 
at least, the Roman principles of right, but the 
latter, as the more highly developed system, still 
retaining some of its old-time vigour, caused the 
Teutons to adopt a policy of toleration at first, 
continuing the practice in vogue in their relations 
to the many different Teutonic tribes, which 
developed later into a policy of imitation. The 
Teutonic influence tended mostly to displace 
Roman public law, inasmuch as the Teutonic 
principle introduced their own communal life, 
with its freehold tenure of land and local self- 
administration, while Roman influence made itself 
largely felt on the Teutonic conceptions of private 
right, which finally led to a natural change in the 
political organisation, and to the creation of the 
mediaeval constitution of the civil government of 
the state. 

322. A Comparison of the Governmental Systems of 
the Teutons and of Rome. — Some of the principles 



392 MEDIMVAL HISTORY 

underlying the Teutonic governmental system 
were radically in contrast to that of Rome, the 
most essential feature of the Roman system being 
its impersonal character, which knew nothing of 
the personal allegiance forming the potent element 
of Teutonic politics. In Rome the citizen was 
subordinate to the state, and while he was subject 
to the dictates of magistrates, this subordination 
did not in any way imply personal allegiance, last- 
ing only during the magistrate's term of office, 
then descending to his successor, the magistrate 
virtually representing only the temporary embodi- 
ment of the state. This conception of the rela- 
tion of the citizen to the state remains the main 
feature of Roman political organisation, and 
although it had suffered a certain degree of 
deterioration before Roman power was broken 
by the Teutons, it retained its salient features, so 
radically opposite to the Teutonic system. 

The Teutons were appreciative admirers of the 
perfect system of Roman law and did not hesitate 
to learn from it, while their leaders followed the 
examples of the Roman emperors and drew up 
codes of law, known as the Barbaric Codes, 
mainly intended for their various Roman subjects ; 
their provisions, however, almost unconsciously 
crept into the conception of native law, which 
continued to be based upon the old principles of 
local customs and personal right. 

The Roman municipal customs remained undis- 
turbed by the Teutons for a long time, because the 



THE AGE OF REVIVAL 393 

latter preferred to live outside of the confined 
limitations of towns. The strength of the Roman 
influence showed itself not only in shaping the 
traditional conceptions of the barbarians of pri- 
vate relations, but eventually also in the municipal 
customs, which tended to prepare the cities for 
the powerful position occupied by them during 
the Middle Ages, and in this process of growth 
toward the modern political life the individualism 
which had characterised the Teutonic system 
gradually was changed into an absolutism not 
essentially different from the imperial system of 
Rome. 

323. Characteristic Features of the Feudal Sys- 
tem. — The Feudal System was an order of 
political life based upon personal dependence, 
originating from tenure of land, feudal society 
consisting of a series of landowners, one dependent 
upon the other, the highest dependent, nominally 
at least, upon the king, who was the head of this 
hierarchy. Under the system the conceptions of 
voluntary personal allegiance to a military leader, 
which had prevailed before, were supplanted by 
this quasi-compulsory dependence upon him from 
whom the tenant had received his lands as a 
military tenure, and upon condition of military 
service to this immediate overlord. At first the 
principle of inheritance was entirely excluded 
from the system, and a son, to be permitted to 
succeed his father as the holder of a fief, had to 
pay a price for the privilege, but in course of time 



394 MEDIMVAL HISTORY 

the hereditary principle crept in, the first-born 
taking possession of the fief as a unit, division not 
being permissible. However, when the lands 
held by a dependent were extended enough, he 
granted portions of the same to smaller dependents, 
the latter assuming the duties of vassalage to the 
former, thus making his position more powerful. 
Some of the fiefs were granted by the king with 
the stipulation that the holders assist him in the 
upholding of his authority among the vassals, 
and as these offices in time became hereditary, 
the power of these individual overlords grew 
steadily, while that of the king was rendered less 
tangible. In time the system absorbed all the 
small freeholders, who were unable to compete 
with their more powerful neighbours, and as they 
failed to combine for mutual protection, they 
were exposed to the danger of losing their lands 
by force, against which they were unable to con- 
test successfully, their only source of help being the 
king, who was virtually beyond their reach. This 
state of affairs led to their giving up their tenure to 
the more powerful owner, who then returned the 
lands to them as a fief with the usual obligation 
of vassalage, while in return they were assured 
of protection. The feudal system was extended 
even to the Church, large grants being made to 
bishops and monasteries, who then again divided 
them among the nobles as fiefs, the nobles thus 
assuming the relation of vassals. 

324. The New Kingship. — The early kings of 



THE AGE OF REVIVAL 395 

the Teutons resembled the Greek kings of the 
Heroic Age, and were scarcely more than patri- 
archal presidents. The creation of a kingship 
was a result of necessity, as the barbarians, in 
their migratory movements during the period of 
their conquests, were not simply moving armies, 
but nations, and the interest of discipline and 
order demanded the substitution of the king for 
the military leader. At the close of the period of 
conquest the necessity which had caused the 
creation of the kingly office still continued to 
exist, and it was but the natural result that the 
kings assumed such sovereign powers as had 
hitherto been foreign to the Teutonic system of 
politics. However, their sovereignty was not 
that of the kings of the later times, which was 
reached only through the modifying process of 
feudalism. 

325. Benefice and Commendation. — The "Bene- 
fices " were assignments of lands made by the 
Teutonic kings or those who had received large 
shares of a conquered territory, to their immediate 
followers, as rewards for military services rendered 
by them, the grants being made upon condition of 
continued military service and allegiance, were 
revocable at pleasure of the donor, and usually 
for life only, but in time became hereditary. 
There was some difference in the grant of benefices 
in France, where under the term were understood 
estates that had originally been independent, 
but had been surrendered to the king and then 



396 MEDIAEVAL HISTORY 

returned by the latter to the holder in considera- 
tion of allegiance and service, for which he, in his 
turn, was to give protection. 

The growth of the power of the holders of the 
larger feudal estates caused the smaller free- 
holders, who were not in position to offer serious 
opposition to any encroachment by force upon 
their holdings, to make over their lands to some 
lord in their immediate vicinity, from whom 
they again received them as fiefs. Society thus 
being arranged in ranks according to property 
holdings, the conquered natives, who could not 
hold any lands, even though liberty had been 
left to them, and the freemen who possessed no 
property, were not included in this gradation. 
They held no position of vassalage to a lord, and 
therefore could demand no protection against 
oppression, so that they were compelled to take 
upon themselves the relation of vassals to a lord, 
without holding any tenure of land, in return for 
protection. This process was called " Commenda- 
tion," but the term did not in all cases signify 
this assumption of the relationship of man to 
master without any connection with the land, as 
the small owners of land became vassals rather 
by commendation than by benefices. 

326. Feudal Conception of Sovereignty and the 
Feudal Hierarchy. — In the feudal system sover- 
eignty was closely identified with ownership, so 
that not only the king was sovereign, being 
theoretically, the owner of all the soil of the 



THE AGE OF REVIVAL Z97 

country, possessing sovereign powers over all 
persons living on his land, but the chiefs and 
nobles, upon whom he had bestowed fiefs, also 
became endowed with sovereign rights in their 
own domains. They could wage war upon their 
neighbours, administered justice, levied tolls upon 
commerce, and coined money, being practically 
independent of the king, their nominal sovereign. 
These sovereign powers were theirs because of 
their ownership of land, which in time became 
hereditary, and even the kingdom thus grew to be 
a mere cluster of loosely confederated powers, 
which rather more represented independent princi- 
palities, whose customs of law and government 
differed radically from each other. 

327. The Effects of the Feudal System. — The 
effect of the feudal system was political disinte- 
gration of the state, as the king, actually, controlled 
only the chiefs of the principal baronies, his im- 
mediate vassals, while he could reach his other 
subjects only through them and through the sub- 
sequent gradation of lower vassals and masters. 
Although he was the sovereign, the king lacked 
real power, because he was unable to enforce the 
rendering of feudal allegiance by the nobles, if 
they chose to cast it off, except by armed force, 
the latter course being in many instances a doubt- 
ful one, as the nobles quite frequently were richer, 
and consequently stronger than the king himself. 

Feudalism caused important changes in social 
matters as well. The change was gradual, and it 



398 MEDIAEVAL HISTORY 

was slower in England than on the continent. 
The general effect of feudalism was to raise those 
who held their lands by the grant of fiefs above all 
others, and to lower the position of the poorer 
freemen, or even sink them to the level of serfs, 
that is, men who were not actually slaves bought 
or sold by man, but dependents bound to the land 
and passing with it as so much chattel. 

Feudal society was divided into three classes, 
the peasants, or tillers of the soil, the citizens, or 
inhabitants of the towns, who formed the in- 
dustrial class, and the aristocracy, who lived upon 
the labours of the other two classes. The slavery 
of the earlier empire was changed into the so-called 
serfdom. The slaves became attached to the soil 
which they tilled and were then no longer sold. 
Later even the character of the free and servile 
became attached to the soil, so that if a man 
settled upon land called servile, because the 
peasants had been serfs, he lost his free character 
and became a serf. Cities, as a whole, were 
treated the same as feudal individuals, and as such 
owed duties to the lords. When they had grown 
large and rich, the cities finally resisted the feudal 
claim of their lords and became one of the influ- 
ences which caused the ultimate destruction of 
feudalism. The nobility formed a class sharply 
separated from the labouring classes. They were 
divided into two classes, the secular and the 
ecclesiastical nobility. The only occupation of 
the secular nobility was the use of arms, and this 



THE AGE OF REVIVAL 399 

class could be entered only by those who had 
sufficient money to fully equip themselves with 
arms and support themselves without work, for 
work the nobility regarded as ignoble. At first 
the possession of wealth was the only prerequisite 
necessary for the entry of the ranks of the nobles, 
but in the thirteenth century the line was drawn 
sharper, and nobility became hereditary. The 
warlike character of the times showed itself in the 
dwellings as well as in the sports and amusements 
of the nobility. Their castles were built on 
elevations most easily defended, and they were 
surrounded by fortifications, ditches, moats, and 
walls, which made the castles strongholds that 
could endure a heavy siege. The sports of the 
nobility consisted of hunting, hawking, and the 
holding of tournaments, in which, although they 
were supposed to be mimic battles, fatal results 
were quite numerous. 

Feudalism reached its height from the tenth 
to the thirteenth centuries. It then began to 
decline gradually. The principal cause of the 
decay of the system was the introduction of fire- 
arms, against which the knight's armour and 
castles became equally useless. Another cause 
was the rapid growth of the power of the kings at 
the close of the Middle Ages, when the nobles were 
gradually divested of their authority. Although 
feudalism thus disappeared as a system of govern- 
ment, and the nobles lost their authority as rulers 
and magistrates, they continue to the present day 



400 MEDIEVAL HISTORY 

to retain their titles, privileges, and social dis- 
tinctions. The growth of the cities also aided the 
extinction of feudalism, as they increased in 
wealth and power and were able to wrest their 
independence from their lord by armed resistance, 
thereby throwing off the feudal yoke. There 
were other forces at work, besides, which tended 
to greatly reduce the number of serfs, namely the 
crusades, great pests, and wars. The feudal lords 
found themselves without a sufficient number of 
serfs to till their lands, and the demand for labour 
continuing, we soon find a great number of free 
labourers who work for a wage, not being bound 
by any feudal ties. 

It may be said that feudalism was the best form 
of social organisation which it was possible to 
maintain during the mediaeval period. However, 
it had some serious drawbacks which tended to 
make it an institution far from a perfect social or 
political system. The mass of the people had no 
guaranteed rights and were virtually at the mercy 
of their lords, as the nobles were also the magis- 
trates of the fiefs, and the feudal barons, safe in 
their fortified castles, oppressed the people in a 
grievous manner, as they had no redress what- 
soever, they being unable to reach the king, the 
nominal overlord of the feudal barons. Feudal 
government also retarded the growth of nation- 
ality, as it tended to foster isolation. The king- 
doms were simply a number of independent 
principalities, and as the exclusiveness of the 



THE AGE OF REVIVAL 40I 

system prevented any one not a noble from be- 
coming the holder of a fief, the lines between the 
different classes of society were sharply drawn, 
and it was not until the lower classes had gradu- 
ally taken from the aristocracy their unfair 
privileges and distinctions that a better form of 
society was established. 

328. The Towns and Feudalism. — The towns 
were not drawn into the system of feudalism 
without opposition, and although in time they 
were compelled to acknowledge the sovereignty of 
some feudal lord, the municipal organisation, — - 
which was in opposition to the principal idea upon 
which rested feudalism, the latter being political 
power based upon ownership of land, — or at 
least a part of its features, was preserved even 
until after the collapse of feudalism. 

The Guild System constituted a semi-feudal 
social organisation, of which, however, not owner- 
ship of land, but property accumulated in the 
pursuit of trade and industry was the basis. 
The social gradation of the citizens of the towns 
was just as precisely differentiated as was that of 
the landowners and freemen in the country, and 
the guild system grew to be an important factor 
in the municipal organisation, the government of 
the town becoming representative of the influence 
of the associated guilds, as every citizen had to be 
a member of one of the guilds. 

329. The City Leagues. — The City Leagues were 
confederations of towns, organised mainly for 



402 MEDIMVAL HISTORY 

the purpose of securing their trade, which was 
being endangered by the existing disorderly 
conditions and the general insecurity of the times. 
From this protective association the city leagues 
developed into principalities with practically 
sovereign powers, the disintegrating influence of 
the feudal system rendering the development 
possible, and the city leagues exercised the 
authority of states, making treaties, entering into 
alliances, deciding questions of peace and war, and 
collecting customs, notwithstanding the fact that 
they were still, nominally at least, subject to the 
control of the emperor. 

The two most important city leagues were the 
Hanseatic and the Rhenish, the former at one 
time consisting of nearly ninety cities about 
Lubeck and Hamburg, the latter including seventy 
towns, Mainz and Worms being the leaders in the 
organisation. The leagues prospered for about 
three hundred years, and practically controlled 
the trade of northern Europe, but the jealousy 
of rival cities, the animosity of kings, and the 
drawing together of feudal sovereignties into 
strong territorial monarchies, with the increased 
security resulting therefrom, also the transposi- 
tion of the old routes of trade by the discoveries 
marking the fifteenth century, and, lastly, the 
great expense connected with the membership in 
the league, because of its far-reaching ambitions, 
formed the principal influential factors which 
tended to decrease the power and usefulness of 



THE AGE OF REVIVAL 403 

the leagues, and they were finally dissolved about 
the middle of the seventeenth century. 

330. The Influence of the Church and the Empire 
upon the Feudal States. — The influence of the 
Roman Catholic Church and of the Holy Roman 
Empire served to counterbalance the disintegrat- 
ing tendency of the feudal system. The unifying 
influence of the Church was that characteristic 
of its own organisation which fostered unity and 
retarded disintegration. The Catholic faith hav- 
ing been accepted by the conquering Teutons, the 
Church established its ecclesiastical representa- 
tives among them, but although it thus became 
closely associated with the new political system 
of feudalism, the priests acknowledged allegiance 
to Rome only, thus preserving at all times the 
internal unity of the Church. 

The laws of the Church, which were transmitted 
to the people through the decisions of the ecclesi- 
astical courts, and the courts of the bishops who 
were feudal lords, had retained much of the civil 
law of Rome and did not change as the divers 
customs and practices in vogue among the differ- 
ent states, so that the influence which tended to 
unify the law acted in the identical way upon 
the political organisation. This tendency of the 
Church was helpful in the creation of the Holy 
Roman Empire, as the establishing of greater 
political units was only a step further in the policy 
of the Church itself, while actual participation in 
temporal affairs seemed to confirm the prerogative 



404 MEDIEVAL HISTORY 

claimed by the Church of Rome, namely that of 
spiritual sovereignty over all kings. 

The Holy Roman Empire also exercised an 
influence towards unity, not only through the 
conception of political completeness, though it 
was often but a shadow of the unity suggested by 
the title of its emperors, but also through the 
diffusion of Roman law, which rendered the 
empire more than a passive witness to the trans- 
formations which took place, when out of the 
feudal system, aided by these unifying influences 
and through the centralisation of feudal owner- 
ship, were evolved the large territorial monarchies. 

331. The Barbaric Codes. — Under the Barbaric 
Codes we described the statements of law pre- 
pared by various barbarian rulers, all of whom 
drew from Roman law as from their principal 
source of information, and intended the codes at 
first for their Roman subjects. In time these pro- 
visions of these codes crept into the codes of native 
law, and the codes issued by some later rulers 
contained summaries of native customs as well as 
of Roman principles. 

The "Lex Romana Visigothorum," drawn up 
by order of Alaric II., which is known as the 
" Brevarium Alaricanum," exerted the greatest 
influence of any of the barbaric codes, as it was 
established in France and then found its way into 
England and Germany, where it remained the 
principal source of Roman law for some time. 

332. The Corpus Juris Civilis. — Under the " Cor- 



THE AGE OF REVIVAL 405 

pus Juris Civilis" is understood the code pub- 
lished by direction of the emperor Justinian, 
as related before. In the fusion of many mixed 
elements, in Italy, brought about by the political 
and commercial contact, as well as by inter- 
marriage, the Teutonic laws offered very little 
suitable and useful material for practice, as their 
conceptions of personal right were hardly adapt- 
able to the conditions created by the unification 
of interests and mixture of bloods. The need of 
a more practical law led to the rediscovery of 
Justinian's code, which seemed to offer the exact 
provisions that were required to meet the changed 
conditions, leaving no room for doubt, and con- 
stituted a code as satisfactory in comparison to 
the Teutonic principles as had been the Jus 
Gentium when contrasted with the Jus Civile as a 
source of law for the foreign subjects of Rome. 

The study of Roman law spread rapidly through- 
out Europe, leading to the establishing of many 
universities. 

333. Effect on the Institutions and Laws of the 
Continent. — The general and rapid spread of the 
study of Roman law was proof of the existence of 
a necessity for the same. Its immediate result 
was the growing up of a body of accomplished 
lawyers, who gradually assumed the judiciary 
positions which hitherto had been occupied by 
hereditary officials. 

In the Corpus Juris Civilis Europe received a 
common commercial law, and the Roman law was 



406 MEDIEVAL HISTORY 

embodied in most of the legal systems of the con- 
tinent, even the laws of England, while sub- 
stantially her own, showing an influence, more 
or less marked, of the study of the Roman law 
which had been carried on for more than three 
centuries. 

In France the principles of Roman law con- 
stituted the basis for all decisions of the royal 
courts, whose deliberations were influenced by the 
assistance of the legistes, jurists well versed in the 
Roman law. 

The imperfections of the judicial system of Ger- 
many also led to the acceptance of the Roman law, 
because of the insistence of the litigants, who were 
dissatisfied with the decisions given by the popular 
courts, whose members were not learned in the 
science of jurisprudence. 

Roman law became prevalent not by legislation 
but by the accumulation of decisions of the courts, 
based upon it in the absence of definite and con- 
clusive provisions of the native laws, Roman law 
growing to be regarded as a supplementary com- 
mon law of the land. This practice served to 
establish a jurisprudence which developed the 
material to be embodied in the law to be finally 
accepted, after the centralisation of the feudal 
sovereignties, with their various laws and customs, 
had been effected. 

334. Local and Unifying Influences.— Under the 
feudal system the different principalities, being 
practically independent, had developed their own 



THE AGE OF REVIVAL 407 

practice of law and custom, and these widely 
differing local systems were brought into France 
after the process of centralisation had been com- 
pleted, and thus came under the influence of the 
unifying tendency of the royal jurisdiction. The 
effect of this unifying influence was for a long time 
confined to the procedure of legal practice rather 
than the constituent principles of the local laws, 
the methods in vogue at the royal courts, to which 
appeals were now possible in all cases, becoming 
the model for the local courts, but the royal 
judges still continued to base their decisions in 
individual cases upon the law of the respective 
district from which they had been originally 
referred to the royal court. Gradually, however, 
local custom and justice began to shape itself 
after the standard set by the king's courts, and 
the local courts employed lawyers versed in 
Roman law, upon which principally rested the 
royal decisions, while the officers of the crown 
endeavoured within their own sphere of influence 
to bring the law and practice into more distinctly 
uniform shape. 

Even before the Roman law had become the 
common law of France, some districts had 
accepted it into their own courts. 

335. Conditions in Germany. — Germany lacked 
the solid unity which characterised the political 
organisation of France, Spain, or England, after 
the process of centralisation had been completed, 
and remained, even after the collapse of feudalism, 



408 MEDIAEVAL HISTORY 

a confederation much less homogeneous, the Ger- 
man emperors, instead of endeavouring to build 
up a strong centralised monarchy, losing their op- 
portunities for this accomplishment by the pur- 
suit of the phantom of world-empire, suggested by 
their coronation as emperors of the Holy Roman 
Empire. 

The introduction of the Roman law in Germany 
was the consequence of the decay of the judicial 
system and not of the defects inherent in German 
law. The popular courts having been superseded 
by courts presided over by single judges, who were 
trained either in Italian schools, or in German 
universities, in which the Roman law of the 
Italian schools was being taught, Roman law took 
the place of the native law, not because it was in 
itself a better law, but because it was a law more 
scientific. However, the law received in Ger- 
many was not the civil law of Rome, but that of 
Italy, being founded upon the Usus Modernus 
Pandectarum, a scientific adaptation of Roman 
canon and Lombard law. While Roman law 
was prevalent in cases involving criminal law. 
inheritance, and contract, German law was ap- 
plied in cases of family litigations, and also where - 
ever the changes in relationship and association 
became a matter for the application of the law. 

336. The Roman Law in England. — While in 
England the Roman law had actually been ad- 
ministered during the period of subjection of the 
island to Roman rule, and the study of Roman 



THE AGE OF REVIVAL 409 

law had been continued for more than three cent- 
uries, the strength of its centralised government 
and the separation from the continent served to 
promote the development of a practical and 
efficient native law, to the exclusion of Roman 
law. This exclusion, however, was not complete, 
as some marks of the influence of Roman law 
are shown clearly not only in the works of early 
writers of legal texts, but also in many of the laws 
of England, the civil law of Rome having fre- 
quently been drawn upon to supplement the 
native law. The greater portion of England's 
law is her own, without question, the Roman law 
having supplied only some modifications of pro- 
cedure and form rather than of principle. 

B — The Papal Power 

337. The Church in the Middle Ages. — We may 
say there were two great institutions in the society 
of the Middle Ages, namely the Church, and 
Feudalism. We now come to the consideration 
of the growth of the Church and of the claim of 
the Papacy to supremacy both in spiritual and 
temporal affairs . Its supremacy in spiritual mat- 
ters was generally acknowledged throughout the 
West of Europe as early as in the sixth century. 
The bishops of Rome claimed to be above the other 
three bishops, those of Constantinople, Alexandria, 
and Antioch, basing this claim on several alleged 
grounds, chief of which was that the Church of 



4IO MEDIAEVAL HISTORY 

Rome had been founded by St. Peter himself, and 
that the supreme authority had been given to St. 
Peter by Christ with the keys of the kingdom of 
heaven, and the words, "feed my sheep; . 
feed my lambs," which authority they claimed 
was transmitted to the successors of St. Peter. 
This supremacy of the Pope in spiritual matters 
was universally respected until the nations of 
northern Europe revolted, in the sixteenth cent- 
ury, when they separated themselves from the 
ancient ecclesiastical empire. The fact that the 
Pope was appealed to for a decision in temporal 
affairs, especially the part taken by Pope Zach- 
arias in the deposing of the last Merovingian 
king of the Franks, and the elevation of Pepin to 
the kingly power, formed a precedent upon which 
they afterwards based their claim to supremacy 
in temporal matters, which however was never 
fully and willingly admitted by the secular rul- 
ers of Europe. The temporal sovereignty of the 
popes continued for nearly eleven hundred years 
(from a.d. 752, when Pepin was crowned King of 
the Franks, until a.d. 1870, when the French 
monarchy was overthrown and the support of 
France withdrawn from Rome. Italy then pro- 
claimed Rome a portion of the kingdom, and an 
Italian army occupied the city). 

The awe inspired by the name and prestige of 
imperial Rome greatly favoured the claim of the 
popes from the very first. The Roman bishops 
occupied the geographical and political centre of 



THE AGE OF REVIVAL 4II 

the world, which gained for them a great advan- 
tage over the other bishops. It was not deemed 
incongruous that the Roman bishops should be 
appealed to for guidance and command in spiritual 
matters, as all commands in temporal matters 
went forth from Rome. This sentiment greatly 
facilitated the acknowledgment of the preemin- 
ence of the Roman bishops over the others in 
dignity and authority. The advantage thus 
gained was not lost when the importance of Rome 
was diminished and the seat of the emperor was 
transferred to Constantinople by Constantine, and 
the popes continued to gradually increase their 
influence. During the invasions of the barbarians 
the prestige of the Pope was greatly enhanced by 
the successful intercessions in behalf of the en- 
dangered city, by which Attila was persuaded to 
turn back and spare Rome, while even the barbaric 
Genseric agreed to refrain from taking the lives 
of the Romans. Thus, when the emperors, the 
natural defenders of the capital, were unable to 
protect it, the head of the Church succeeded, 
through the reverence inspired by his holy office, 
in rendering services so valuable that they natu- 
rally tended to increase the honour and dignity 
of the Pope. The missionary zeal of the Church 
of Rome also helped to gain adherents. The 
many churches founded looked upon the occupant 
of the papal chair with reverence and grateful 
loyalty. 

338. The Iconoclasts. — The Iconoclasts were a 



412 MEDIAEVAL HISTORY 

strong party of reformers that arose in the Eastern 
Empire in the eighth century. They opposed the 
use and honour or worship of images or pictures 
(icons), with which even long before the seventh 
century the Eastern as well as the Western 
churches had become crowded. The controversy 
about the worship of images, known in history as 
the Iconoclastic controversy, began with the edict 
against images of the Eastern emperor Leo the 
Isaurian.in 726, and continued until the middle 
of the ninth century. Leo issued this edict after 
having cleared all Greek churches of the images, 
but the bishop of Rome not only opposed the 
execution of the edict, but cut off the Eastern 
emperor and all the Iconoclastical churches from 
communion with the Catholic Church by the ban 
of excommunication. The dispute was continued 
by various successors of Emperor Leo, and the 
Iconoclast emperors treated those who honoured 
images with great cruelty. 

In 842 all the images had been restored in the 
Eastern churches, but by this time there had 
arisen other causes of alienation, and the breach 
between the two divisions of Christendom could 
not be healed. Finally the separation became 
permanent in the latter half of the eleventh cent- 
ury, when the Eastern Church became known as 
the Greek, Byzantine, or Eastern; the Roman as 
the Latin, Roman, or Catholic Church. 

339. The Emperor and the Pope. — There were 
three different theories of the relation of the World- 



THE AGE OF REVIVAL 413 

King, the Emperor, and the World-Priest, the 
Pope. Arguments from the scriptures and from 
history were used liberally to defend the various 
views, but the differences of opinion were unsur- 
mountable and the history succeeding the estab- 
lishment of the papal power is a record of a long 
continued struggle between the Pope and the 
emperor, which was the result of their attempts 
to put into practice some of the irreconcilable 
theories. The first theory asserted that both the 
Pope and the emperor were independently com- 
missioned by God, the Pope to rule the spirits, the 
emperor to rule the bodies of men. Thus, both 
reigning by divine right, neither was elevated 
above the other, and they were to cooperate and 
help each other. The duty of the emperor was 
the maintenance of order and the protection of the 
Church, and he was to bear the sword in defending 
the Church against all heretics and disturbers of 
the peace and unity of the .Church, and for the 
purpose of executing its decrees. The first theory 
advocated an alliance between the Church and the 
State. The second theory, which was held by the 
imperial party, was that the emperor was superior 
to the Pope. In support of this theory they 
quoted Christ's payment of tribute money, and 
his submission to the decision of the Roman tri- 
bunal. They also claimed that the fact that the 
popes received gifts from the various rulers made 
them vassals of the emperors. The theory of the 
papal party maintained that temporal authority 



414 MEDIEVAL HISTORY 

was subordinate to the spiritual. They again 
quoted from the scriptures various passages 
favouring their point of view. So for instance: 
" But he that is spiritual judges all things, yet he 
himself is judged of no man"; "See, I have this 
day set thee over the nations and over the king- 
doms, to root out and to pull down, and to destroy 
and to throw down, to build and to plant." The 
two swords given by Christ to St. Peter were also 
held to signify that he was endowed with both 
spiritual and civil authority. The relationship of 
the sun and moon, the soul and the body, were 
also used in support of the theory. The argu- 
ment founded upon the gifts to the popes was met 
with the quotation of the fact that Charlemagne 
had received the crown from the hands of the 
Pope. 

Although the beginning of the temporal power 
of the Papacy falls into the eighth century, it was 
not fully established until Gregory VII., better 
known as Hildebrand, occupied the papal chair 
(107 3- 1085). His plans toward the establish- 
ment of the universal spiritual and temporal 
sovereignty of the Pope met with strong opposi- 
tion from the German emperor, and the struggle 
was continued by his successors, until the strife 
culminated in the ruin of the house of Hohen- 
staufen, which marked the final triumph of the 
Papacy. In the thirteenth century almost all the 
kings and princes of Europe looked upon the Pope 
as upon their overlord. During the thirteenth and 



THE AGE OF REVIVAL 415 

fourteenth centuries the struggle was renewed, 
but the temporal authority of the popes now 
began to decline rapidly, and when two rival 
popes set themselves up as rightful successors of 
St. Peter, men were led to question the claims and 
the infallibility of both, the result being the de- 
struction of the reverence which had once been 
felt for the Holy See. Although the struggle was 
carried on at different times and in various coun- 
tries, the popes were never again able to regain 
the influence they had wielded in the thirteenth 
century. In the eighteenth century the posses- 
sions of the popes began to grow smaller, the 
largest part of the papal states was annexed to 
Italy in i860, and Rome and the neighbouring 
districts, representing the last remnant of the 
possessions of the Church, were annexed, to Italy 
in 1870. 

340. Chivalry. — Chivalry grew out of feudalism 
and has very aptly been defined as its bright- 
est flower. It was an institution, or order, the 
members of which, called knights, were pledged 
to defend the Church and the weak and oppressed. 
The germs of the system may be found before the 
time of Charlemagne, but it did not assume dis- 
tinct form until the eleventh century, and it 
ceased to exist when feudal society passed away. 
Chivalry had its origin in two peculiarities of the 
customs and instincts of the Gothic races, namely, 
the love for feats of arms and adventure, and the 
high regard and delicate gallantry of the Teutons 



416 MEDIEVAL HISTORY 

toward the female sex. The influence of the senti- 
ments of compassion and sympathy with the op- 
pressed and unfortunate, which were awakened 
by Christianity, aided in giving shape and char- 
acter to the institution. 

There are many conflicting opinions as to the 
influence of chivalry, which was exercised for 
some centuries on the manners, habits, thoughts, 
and sentiments of men in all the countries of 
western Europe. Its chief defect was the ex- 
clusive, aristocratic tendencies, which made the 
knights look upon the lower classes with indiffer- 
ence and contempt, but it cannot be denied that in 
many respects the influence of chivalry must have 
been good and ennobling, because the ideal of 
chivalry was lofty, pure, and generous. The vir- 
tues held essential to the knightly character were 
loyalty, courtesy, munificence, and valour, and 
these ideas softened warfare in a barbarous age, by 
teaching humanity and courtesy to enemies, and 
indulgence to prisoners. It was social death to a 
knight to break an engagement to the feudal lord, 
to a lady or to a friend, and this scrupulous ad- 
herence to one's word and to all engagements was 
a characteristic quality in an age when the ob- 
ligations of honour were otherwise likely to be 
regarded as of little importance. Chivalry also 
helped to lift the sentiment of respect for the 
gentler sex into that reverence for womanhood 
which forms a potent characteristic of the present 
age, and it placed woman in her proper station as 



THE AGE OF REVIVAL 417 

the equal and companion of man, by making her 
the object of chivalrous attention. However, the 
morals of chivalry were often far from pure, 
and a bad influence was exercised by a spirit of 
pride and revenge, and disdain for the arts of 
peace and industry. This influence notwith- 
standing, chivalry did much towards producing 
that representative type, the "gentleman" of 
to-day, who is thus called in order to designate 
him as a " knightly and Christian character, ' ' a 
representative of the high-toned institution of the 
days of the crusades. 

Every nobleman was required to learn the use 
of arms by serving an apprenticeship of from five 
to seven years. Generally he was attached to 
some knight, in whose castle he was educated 
along with the members of the family in military 
arts and feudal etiquette. At first he was named 
a page, in which capacity he attended the ladies 
of the castle, followed them in their walks, or 
when hunting or hawking. At the age of fourteen 
the page became a squire. He was now attached 
to some knight and it became his duty to follow 
his lord into battle or to the tournament, leading 
the war horse. At the age of twenty-one the 
squire was made a knight. His master girded 
him with a sword and struck him with the flat 
of his sword on the . shoulder, declaring him a 
knight. Later many rites were added to this 
ceremony by the clergy, all of a religious character. 

The favourite amusement of the age of chivalry 



418 MEDIEVAL HISTORY 

was the tournaments. They were celebrated on. 
occasions of coronations, victories, royal marriages, 
etc., and took place in the lists, a space roped or 
railed off in an oval form. The open spaces at 
each end were filled with galleries for the ladies 
and noble spectators. As a rule only knights 
known to fame and of approved valour were per- 
mitted to participate in the tournaments, though 
sometimes a stranger knight was allowed to enter 
the lists without first divulging his name. The 
combat was generally with lances, on the points 
of which were fixed pieces of wood, and the 
victory was the knight's who succeeded in un- 
horsing his antagonist, or who broke the greatest 
number of lances. The tournament continued to 
be a favourite diversion even after the spirit of 
chivalry had declined in Europe, but the frequent 
fatal results finally effected the abolition of the 
sport. 

C — The Norman Conquest 

341. The Normans. — The Normans were the 
descendants of the Northmen, or Scandinavians, 
who settled in France (Normandy) in 911, under 
their leader Rollo. The duchy of Normandy, 
founded by Rollo, grew into great power and 
prosperity, until it was reckoned as one of the 
chief states of western Europe. King Edward, 
the last king of the English of the old West-Saxon 
dynasty, was a kinsman of William, the Duke of 
Normandy. It seems that at one time in his life 



THE AGE OF REVIVAL 419 

he made a promise to Duke William that, as he 
had no children, William should succeed him on 
the throne of England. 

When King Edward died, in 1066, the English 
people gave the crown to Earl Harold. William 
of Normandy demanded of Harold that he sur- 
render to him the usurped throne and threatened 
to invade England if he refused compliance. 
Harold answered the threat by expelling the 
Normans from the country and collecting a fleet 
and an army for the defence of his kingdom. 
William then sent to the Pope certain charges 
against Harold, and promised, if the Pope would 
give him his support, to put the Church of England 
under control of Rome, in return for the papal 
support and sanction. The Pope gave him his 
blessing on those terms and William collected his 
troops for the invasion. In the meantime King 
Harold was threatened from the north by his 
traitor-brother Tostig, who led the Danes into 
England. Harold was awaiting the attack of 
William on the southern shores of England, when 
Hardrada, King of Norway, and Tostig suddenly 
landed on the coast of Yorkshire and took the city 
of York. Harold hastened to the north, and 
meeting the invaders at Stamford Bridge, ad- 
ministered to them a crushing defeat. On the 
day of this battle William landed in the south 
and began ravaging the country. By forced 
marches Harold hastened south, and although 
he had been deserted by some of his troops he 



420 MEDIAEVAL HISTORY 

nevertheless decided to risk a battle, without wait- 
ing to collect fresh troops or allowing his army 
to recuperate. He met the forces at Hastings, 
1066, on the 14th of October. The battle raged 
from morning till late in the afternoon, and as 
the English kept themselves on the defensive in 
a very good position, the Normans were unable to 
gain any advantage. Some chroniclers say that 
the Normans finally caused the English to leave 
their position by feigning flight, and that they 
then succeeded in overpowering them, but it is 
more likely that the defeat of the English must be 
ascribed to the lack of proper command on the 
afternoon of the memorable battle, Harold hav- 
ing been wounded, and in the end the Normans 
gained a decisive victory. Harold and both his 
brothers were slain, and William became King 
of England. 

After establishing himself in power, William at 
once began to fulfil the promises he had made to 
the nobles who had aided him in his enterprise, by 
distributing among them the unredeemed estates 
of the English nobles who had fought against 
him at Hastings, and the lands later confiscated 
from the participants in subsequent uprisings. In 
distributing the lands William gave to none of 
his lords continuous tracts of lands, but several 
scattered estates instead, in order to prevent all 
concentration of property or power in the hands 
of a vassal. He also required of all sub- vassals, 
in addition to their oath of allegiance to their 



THE AGE OF REVIVAL 42 1 

lord, an oath of fealty to the crown, which was a 
most important modification of the feudal cus- 
tom. He also denied to the holders of fiefs the 
right to make laws and to coin money. By these 
wise restrictions he saved England from the many 
petty wars which were distracting almost every 
other country of Europe. 

342. Effects of the Norman Conquest. — The Nor- 
man conquest exercised a great influence upon 
the history of England not only because of the 
political changes brought about by William the 
Conqueror. The first and most important result 
was the establishment of a strong centralised 
government. The second was the. founding of a 
feudal aristocracy. The third was the bringing 
of England into closer contact with the rest of 
Europe, which influenced her progress in art, 
science, and general culture. 

D — The Crusades 

343. Introductory. — The Crusades form one of 
the most conspicuous examples in all history of 
the truth of Cowper's line, "God moves in a 
mysterious way his wonders to perform." Out of 
the disasters and degradations consequent upon 
the continental upheavals evoked by the fanatic- 
ism of the age were wrought out good and progress 
in the end. After the crusades comes a period 
marking the culmination and the beginning of the 
end of the absolute control of the Papacy and of 



422 MEDIAEVAL HISTORY 

papal prestige. While the crusades postponed, 
they did not avert the danger from the Turks; 
the latter recovered their sway and extended their 
rule till the fall of Constantinople. 

344. Europe in the Year 1000. — At the end of 
the tenth century the great kingdoms of mediaeval 
Europe were beginning to assume a definite shape. 
The kingdom of the Western Franks passed from 
the weak descendants of Charlemagne to those of 
Hugh Capet; in Spain the Christian kingdoms 
were steadily growing in power, and the Caliphate 
of Cordova was slowly decaying. The crown of 
Lombardy was annexed to the German realm, 
Burgundy following. The kingdom of the Eastern 
Franks entered into its more distinctly German 
phase during the reign of the three Ottos, and the 
German kings made good their claim to the 
imperial title, it being the ambition of every 
German king to be crowned emperor of the 
Romans. Ten years before the year 1000 all 
Christendom became alarmed, as it was believed 
that the Day of Judgment would come with that 
year. However, that year came and passed; 
but the terror was revived thirty years later 
at the approach of the thousandth anniversary 
of the Crucifixion. When the threatening cloud 
disappeared, a passion of piety seems to have 
seized all classes, and the pilgrimages, which it 
had been customary from an early period for 
believers to make to the Holy Land, now became 
very numerous. 



THE AGE OF REVIVAL 423 

While the Saracens remained masters of Pales- 
tine, they usually pursued an enlightened policy 
toward the pilgrims, and even encouraged them 
as a source of revenue, each pilgrim having to 
pay a toll before he was permitted to enter the 
gates of Jerusalem. But when the Seljukian 
Turks, a prominent Tartar tribe, in the middle of 
the eleventh century, became masters of Asia 
Minor and Syria, the Christians, whether resi- 
dents or pilgrims, were subjected to the most 
cruel treatment, and the churches of Jerusalem 
were, in some cases, destroyed or turned into 
stables. The news of the profanation of the 
churches, and the indignities and insults to which 
the Christians were being subjected, was brought 
back to Europe by the pilgrims and produced a 
deep feeling of indignation throughout western 
Europe. Thus it was that the pilgrim was trans- 
formed into a warrior, the sentiment gaining 
ground rapidly that if it was meritorious to make 
a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, it would be an act 
even more pious to check the progress of the 
hated religion of Mohammed and to wrest the 
sacred spot from the desecration of the Moslems. 
This religious feeling was the principal cause of 
the crusades, but there was still another cause not 
to be overlooked. This was the restless and ad- 
venturous spirit of the Teutonic peoples. The 
feudal knights and lords were instantly ready to 
enlist themselves in the enterprise, as it agreed 
fully with their martial feelings. 



424 MEDIEVAL HISTORY 

345. Peter the Hermit. — Peter the Hermit was 
a native of Amiens in Picardy, and he forsook his 
wife and laid aside the sword he had wielded in 
the service of the counts of Boulogne in order to 
become a monk. After having made a pilgrimage 
to Jerusalem, and having there witnessed the 
atrocities perpetrated by the Turks, he became 
possessed with the idea that he was selected by 
Heaven to deliver the Holy Land from the hands 
of the infidels. After his return to Europe he 
hastened to Rome and there found in Pope 
Urban II. a ready listener to his bold project. 
Urban bestowed his blessing on the fervent en- 
thusiast, and Peter travelled through Italy, France, 
and a part of Germany, to proclaim the sacred 
duty of delivering the sepulchre of Christ from 
the hands of the Moslems. He was dwarfish in 
stature and mean in person, but his eloquence 
was ready, even if it may have been rude, and he 
never failed to stir the conscience and rouse the 
wrath of his hearers with his recital of the horrors 
he had himself witnessed. In 1094 the cause 
was openly taken up by the Pope and a coun- 
cil was called at Clermont in 1095, at which it 
was decided to begin the first expedition in the 
spring of the following year. However, the im- 
patience of the multitudes, stirred up by the 
frenzied preachings of Peter the Hermit, grew 
too violent, and long before the time appointed 
for the start they gathered on the eastern fron- 
tiers of France, and urged Peter the Hermit to 



THE AGE OF REVIVAL 425 

take the command, as the original preacher of the 
enterprise. 

346. The First Crusade. — Thus it came about 
that early in the year 1096 Peter the Hermit, at 
the head of about 80,000 people, who were too 
impatient to await the start of the main army, 
which was to be made in August of the same year, 
started on the march toward the East. They 
took the route through Germany, Hungary, 
Bulgaria, and Thrace, but, being without organi- 
sation and able leadership, they committed the 
most dreadful devastations in the countries 
through which they passed, and thousands of the 
Crusaders fell in the battles with the enraged 
natives, while many died of starvation and ex- 
posure. The remnants of the band crossed the 
Bosphorus, but were surprised by the Turks and 
cut to pieces, Peter the Hermit escaping and 
returning to Constantinople, where he awaited 
the arrival of the main army. None of the 
sovereigns took part in the first crusade, but the 
feudal chiefs, each at the head of his own vassals, 
ranged themselves under their distinguished 
leaders, among whom were Godfrey of Bouillon, 
the Duke of Lorraine, and Tancred, called the 
"mirror of knighthood," Robert, the Duke of 
Normandy, and others. Six separate armies were 
formed and they crossed Europe by various 
routes, reassembling again at Constantinople. 
There they were joined by Peter the Hermit and 
the remnants of the band which he had led into 



426 MEDIEVAL HISTORY 

Asia Minor. The army numbered about 300,000 
men and many of this number were full-mailed 
knights. The first movement was against Nicaea, 
in Asia Minor, which place was captured by the 
Crusaders, who then started on their march to 
Antioch, over land made a waste by the Turks. 
At Dorylasum they met a large force of Turkish 
cavalry and a battle was fought which ended in 
the victory of the Crusaders, although at first the 
Turks were gaining many advantages. Hundreds 
died on the march to Antioch, and the horses 
dropped in such numbers that 25,000 knights 
were dismounted and had to trudge along carrying 
the heavyweight of their armour. The Crusaders 
then besieged Antioch, and after a siege of seven 
months, during which they suffered famine and 
pestilence, the city was finally taken by the 
treachery of a Syrian officer. After the taking of 
the city the Crusaders themselves were besieged 
by a large army of Mohammedans, and they again 
suffered much through famine, but finally suc- 
ceeded by a bold sa-lly in overthrowing the Mos- 
lems. Of the great army of the Crusaders now 
only about 25,000 remained, and of these only a 
few thousand were mounted. This force marched 
to Jerusalem, which in the meantime had been 
recaptured by the Saracens, and took the city by 
storm, a.d. 1099. A terrible slaughter took place, 
lasting for seven days, at the end of which scarcely 
any of the Moslems remained alive. The Christians 
then established the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem. 



THE AGE OF REVIVAL 427 

347. The Second Crusade. — After the fall of 
Odessa and the slaughter of the Christian inhabit- 
ants, in 1 145, St. Bernard, the son of a nobleman, 
and abbot of the monastery of Clairvaux, began 
to preach a new crusade, and succeeded in enlist- 
ing in the enterprise the two foremost sovereigns 
of the age, Conrad II., Emperor of Germany, and 
Louis VII., of France. The scenes of the opening 
of the first crusade were now repeated, and an 
army of 300,000 was ready for the march in 11 47, 
but in Asia Minor the armies distintegrated and 
the crusade came to an end without having 
accomplished anything. 

348. The Great Militant Orders. — The three 
great military and religious orders were known as 
the Hospitalers, the Templars, and the Teutonic 
Knights. 

The Hospitalers took their name from the fact 
that their organisation was formed among the 
hospitals of the monks of St. John, at Jerusalem; 
the Templars were so called because one of the 
buildings of the brotherhood occupied the site 
of Solomon's temple; the Teutonic Knights had 
their origin in an association of philanthropic 
Germans, the immediate object of the society 
being the relief of the wounded and sick German 
warriors in the trenches before Acre, which city 
the Crusaders were then besieging. The object 
of the Hospitalers and of the Templars was also 
the care of the sick and wounded, the guarding of 
the holy places, and the defence of the cross. 



428 MEDIAiVAL HISTORY 

The fraternities rose to great military fame and 
they were joined by the most illustrious knights of 
the West. The orders were the recipients of many 
gifts from the pious, and in time acquired great 
wealth, gaining numerous foundations in Europe 
as well as in Asia. 

The Teutonic Knights were raised to knight- 
hood by Frederick Barbarossa, and the order 
entered on a remarkable career, first against the 
infidels in Asia, and then against the pagans of 
northern Europe. 

349. The Third Crusade. — The three leaders of 
the third crusade were Frederick I., surnamed 
Barbarossa, of the line of the Hohenstaufens, 
Philip Augustus of France, and Richard I. of 
England, called "Cceur de Lion" (the Lion- 
hearted) . 

Frederick Barbarossa was the most noted em- 
peror of the Holy Roman Empire. He suc- 
ceeded Conrad III. as king of Germany in 11 52, 
and was crowned emperor in 1155. He joined 
the third crusade in 1189, and led a well -disci- 
plined army of one hundred thousand men by the 
overland route into Asia Minor. He was drowned 
in the river Kalykadnos, and his army, being 
without a leader, melted away, and the greater 
part returned to Germany. 

Philip Augustus succeeded Louis VII. as King of 
France in 11 80. He combined his forces with 
those of Richard I., the "Lion-hearted," and 
started on the third crusade in 1190. The 



THE AGE OF REVIVAL 429 

armies went by sea and reached the destination 
safely, but their effectiveness was prevented by 
a quarrel which broke out between the two kings. 
On the way Richard conquered Cyprus and made 
of it a Christian kingdom, which was to be a strong 
defence for many years against the Mohammedans. 
Before the armies had reached Syria, the Christians 
there had rallied and were laying siege to Acre. 
Here the armies of Richard and Philip were joined 
by the remnants of the army of Frederick Bar- 
barossa, and they at once began to prosecute the 
siege with much vigour. Saladin attempted in 
vain to relieve Acre, and a number of battles were 
fought on the plains around the city between the 
Crusaders and the Moslems. After a siege of 
twenty-three months the city was taken, but after 
the capture Philip returned home. Richard, after 
engaging in many adventurous undertakings 
without accomplishing much, sailed away. He 
was taken prisoner in Austria by Duke Leopold, 
and did not return to England until 1 193, when he 
was released upon the payment of a large ransom. 
The capture of Acre was hailed by the Christians 
as a good omen of the recovery of Jerusalem, 
but this hope vanished with the retirement of the 
king of France from the expedition. Richard re- 
mained and continued the struggle for two years 
with varying success. He took the city of Jaffa, 
but did not wish to use the advantage gained 
except to gain better terms from the enemy, and 
finally a truce of three years and eight months 



430 MEDIAEVAL HISTORY 

was agreed upon. Ascalon was to be dismantled, 
but the Christians were to remain in possession of 
Jaffa and Tyre, with the country lying between 
these cities, and the pilgrims were to have free 
access to Jerusalem. Thus the third crusade also 
proved a failure, as the capture of Acre was not 
important enough to repay for the large expendi- 
ture of money, effort, and life which had been 
made. 

350. The Children's and Minor Crusades. — The 
epidemic of fanaticism that agitated Europe 
seized upon the children in the interval between 
the fourth and fifth crusade and resulted in what 
is known as the children's crusade, in 12 12. The 
leader was a French boy, about twelve years of 
age, named Stephen, who had become persuaded 
that Christ had commanded him to lead a crusade 
of children to the rescue of the Holy Sepulchre. 
In the summer of 12 12 about fifty thousand 
children, mostly German, crossed the Alps. This 
number gradually melted away by deaths, deser- 
tions, and seizures, and only a small number 
reached Brundusium, whence two or three thou- 
sand of the children sailed away, never to be heard 
from again. The French children fared even 
worse. Thirty thousand of them joined in the 
march towards Marseilles, from which port about 
five thousand sailed away, were betrayed, and sold 
as slaves in the Mohammedan slave markets. 

Of the subsequent crusades several were not 
directed towards the Holy Land at all, and the 



THE AGE OF REVIVAL 43 I 

others failed to accomplish anything tangible. 
In 1 291 Acre was taken by the Mamelukes, and 
the whole country again came under the rule of 
the Mohammedans. 

351. Effects of the Crusades. — The effects of the 
crusades were great and varied. They did much 
to increase the power of the Papacy, and added to 
the wealth of the Church. The militant orders 
owed their existence wholly to the crusades. 
The crusades also helped to destroy feudalism. 
The lords often, sold their estates, rights, privi- 
leges, and other feudal possessions, in order to 
get enough money to enable them to take part in a 
crusade, and the creation of a new nobility was 
thus facilitated. They diminished the number 
of feudal subjects, and created a demand for free 
labour, which resulted in the elevation of the 
serfs into the class of free labourers. The effect of 
the crusades upon commerce was most marked. 
Ship-building and commerce were largely increased 
and many new articles of merchandise were intro- 
duced into Europe, as the Crusaders brought from 
the East the knowledge of many products and 
processes not before known in western Europe. 
The crusades also gave a strong impetus to literary 
activity, as many histories and poems were written 
about them, and the literary products of Chivalry 
may be ascribed to the same cause. The know- 
ledge of Europe was generally increased, espe- 
cially in practical farming, as the Europeans 
had much to learn in that respect from the Arabs ; 



432 MEDIAEVAL HISTORY 

also in medicine and chemistry, mathematics, and 
astronomy. Most important of all influences may 
be said to be the general enlargement of the intel- 
lectual horizon of Europe, caused by travel in 
foreign lands, and by contact with people who 
had a finer and higher civilisation than that of the 
western Europeans. Lastly the increase of geo- 
graphical knowledge may be mentioned., as the 
crusades brought experience in travel and practical 
knowledge of larger territories, so that an active 
interest was aroused in the study of geography. 
The curiosity awakened by the news of new 
regions caused the undertaking of many journeys 
of discovery, and even the spirit of maritime en- 
terprise which resulted in the voyages of Colum- 
bus, Vasco da Gama, and Magellan can be traced 
back to the influence of the crusades. 

352. The Popes Supreme; Decline of their Tem- 
poral Power. — Gregory VII. (Hildebrand) was 
Pope from 1073 until 1085. He was of obscure 
origin, entered a monastery, and in 1049 was 
invited to Rome as an adviser to the Pope. 
He was created a cardinal in 1050 and virtually 
conducted the temporal policy of the Papacy 
during, the occupancy of the papal chair by 
Nicholas II. and Alexander II., succeeding the 
latter in 1073. In 1075 he issued the famous 
edict prohibiting ecclesiastics to do homage to a 
temporal lord, specifying that they should receive 
the investitures from the hands of the Pope. In 
1076 he cited Henry IV. of Germany to Rome, to 



THE AGE OF REVIVAL 433 

answer the charge of simony, sacrilege, and oppres- 
sion. Henry became enraged at this and declared 
Gregory deposed, but Gregory retaliated by ex- 
communicating Henry, who was suspended from 
the royal office by the disaffected German princes ; 
but Henry did penance before the Pope at Can- 
ossa, in 1077, and received conditional absolution. 
Later the excommunication was renewed and a 
war broke out. 

In 1080 Rudolf of Swabia was put forward by 
the papal party as king but he was defeated by 
Henry, who appointed Clement III. as Anti-Pope, 
captured Rome in 1084, and besieged Gregory in 
his castle. Gregory was rescued by Robert 
Guiscard, but was forced into exile, where he died 
in 1085. 

The object which Gregory had sought to ac- 
complish was to establish the supremacy of the 
Papacy within the Church and of the Church over 
the state. These great claims were only partly 
realised by him. The successes he attained were 
the establishing of the custom of sending papal 
delegates to all parts of Europe ; the acknowledg- 
ment of his superior authority over that of the 
council; his destruction of the independence of 
the bishops, by giving the clergy the right to ap- 
peal from their decisions to the Pope ; his enforce- 
ment of celibacy among the clergy; and finally 
the freeing of the papal power of all interferences, 
either imperial or Roman, by establishing the 
School of Cardinals. He thus formulated the 



434 mediaeval history 

claims of the Papacy to absolute power and out- 
lined its future policy. 

In the twelfth century took place the fierce 
struggle between the emperor and the Popes for 
supremacy. When Innocent III. became Pope, 
in 1 1 98, he continued the policy of Gregory VII. 
and made it the chief purpose of his ecclesiastical 
policy to vindicate the claim of the supremacy of 
the Church over the state. He was an able jurist, 
and endeavoured to reduce all the claims of the 
Papacy to a legal basis. How far reaching was 
his authority may be illustrated by the fact that 
he forced Philip Augustus of France to take back 
the wife he had divorced, Ingeburga of Denmark, 
in 1200. In 1202 he caused a crusade to be 
preached, the fourth, but the expedition was not 
aimed at the Holy Land, and resulted in the over- 
throw of the Greek Empire by the capture of 
Constantinople, and in the establishment of the 
Latin Empire, in 1204. He deposed Otto IV., the 
emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, and in 12 15 
crowned Frederick of Sicily as emperor. In 12 13 
he succeeded in compelling John, the king of 
England, to accept the nomination of Stephen 
Langton as Archbishop of Canterbury, and even 
to acknowledge the feudal sovereignty of the Pope 
by the payment of an annual tribute of one thou- 
sand marks. 

Under Innocent III. many of the claims of the 
Papacy were realised and he won a victory in 
nearly every case pertaining to the temporal power 



THE AGE OF REVIVAL 435 

of the Pope. But by too frequent use of the inter- 
dict, this once formidable weapon lost much of 
its effectiveness, and at last the Papacy began to 
lose in spiritual powers, mostly on account of the 
Pope's political ambitions. He presided at the 
Lateran Council in 12 15, which decreed that no 
one except a properly ordained priest could ad- 
minister the sacrament, and the fact that the 
council dealt with some questions really reform- 
atory in character shows his deep insight and 
sincerity as well as his exceptional ability. 

A great crusade was decided upon by the coun- 
cil for the year 1 2 1 7 , but the Pope died at Perugia 
in 1 2 16, while busily engaged on the preparations 
for the crusade. 

353. The Great Schism. — The discontent of the 
Italians because of the removal of the seat of 
the Papacy to Avignon, where all the policies of the 
popes were brought under direct influence by the 
French kings, finally led to an open rupture, and 
the Italian selected a rival Pope in 1378. This 
year marked the beginning of the period of decline 
of the prestige of the Papacy. In 1409 a general 
council was called at Pisa, in order to settle the 
dispute, and the council deposed both popes and 
elected Alexander V. as the head of the Church. 
However, both of the deposed popes refused to 
lay down their authority, and so the world wit- 
nessed the unusual spectacle of three popes hold- 
ing office at one and the same time. In 14 14 
another council was called at Constance. Two 



436 MEDIAEVAL HISTORY 

of the popes were deposed, and one resigned, 
Cardinal Colonna becoming Pope, with the name 
of Martin V. Although to outward appearances 
the struggle had been brought to a close, and the 
Church was again united under one single head, 
the popes were now drawn into the political 
struggles of Italy, and presented the aspect of 
temporal rulers to such an extent that many were 
shocked at the activity of the popes in politics and 
complained that while the popes were entangled 
in the affairs of the world, they were neglecting 
their spiritual duties. The popes then lived in 
great magnificence, keeping a standing army and 
making war upon their enemies. The expenses of 
maintaining the papal Court became very heavy, 
and the contributions exacted from all the govern- 
ments of Europe were made to constitute another 
cause for complaint, which, at the end of the 
fifteenth century, ended in a profound dis- 
satisfaction with the Papacy and a distinct call 
for reform. The temporal princes of France, 
Germany, and England took advantage of the 
declining authority of the Papacy and freed 
themselves so far as political and governmental 
affairs were concerned from the influences of the 
popes, but, although the Papacy thus lost its 
temporal power, its spiritual supremacy was 
never questioned, and the popes remained the 
rightful arbiters in all spiritual matters. 



THE AGE OF REVIVAL 437 

E — The Turanian Power 

354. The Mongols. — Genghis Khan, the most 
renowned leader of the Mongols, a fierce Tartar 
tribe which in the middle of the twelfth century 
was beginning to build up a new power, was born 
in Mongolia, a.d. 1156, and died in 1226. He was 
the son of a petty tribal chieftain, and proclaimed 
himself Khan of the Mongols in 1206, beginning a 
series of conquests which put under his rule a 
territory greater, than had been the Persian and 
Roman empires. He conquered northern China 
by the capture of Peking in 12 14, subjugated 
central Asia in 12 17, and then led his barbarous 
hordes against Europe, ravaging the countries he 
traversed, and destroying the cities. His son 
invaded Russia and proceeded even as far as Ger- 
many, and under Kublai Khan the Mongol empire 
included the best part of Asia, besides a great por- 
tion of Europe. After the death of Kublai Khan 
the empire fell into disorder and was broken up 
into many small states. It was restored by Tam- 
erlane, or Timour the Lame, who re-established 
the Mongol dominion. Tamerlane, who is said to 
have been a descendant of Genghis Khan, was 
born in 1333 and died in 1405. He re-united the 
Mongol territories in 1370, conquered Persia and 
central Asia, and in 1398 a greater part of India, 
and defeated the Sultan Bajazet I. at Ancyra 
(Angora) in 1402. While he was preparing for an 
invasion of China he died, in 1405. The Mongol 



438 MEDIMVAL HISTORY 

state lasted for three hundred years and was des- 
troyed by the English in the nineteenth century. 
Tamerlane maintained a splendid court at Samar- 
kand and the courts of the Great Moguls at Delhi 
and Agra are among the most brilliant traditions 
of the East. 

355. Rise of the Ottoman Empire. — The Otto- 
man empire takes its name from its founder, 
Othman. Othman united under his rule various 
Turkish tribes which had been crowded into Asia 
Minor by the Mongol conquests, and established 
the most important and permanent sovereignty 
of the Tartars at the close of the thirteenth century. 
The Ottoman Turks, an offshoot of the Seljukian 
Turks, gained a foothold in Europe in 1353, when 
one of the factions at Constantinople called them 
to cross the Bosporus and to aid them in the fight 
against the Bulgarians. Once in the country, 
they maintained their ground and began to make 
conquests for themselves, just as the Angles and 
Saxons had done in England, and during the reign 
of Amurath I. gained possession of most of the 
country known at present as Turkey. The suc- 
cessor of Amurath, his son Bajazet, spread a great 
alarm over all Europe by the rapid advance of 
his arms, and the forces of Hungary, Germany, 
and France were united to stay his progress. The 
allies were defeated in a fierce battle fought at 
Nicopolis, in 1396. Bajazet then directed his 
forces against Constantinople, but was forced to 
recross the Bosporus and to hasten to Asia to 



THE AGE OF REVIVAL 439 

check the conquest of the Mongols. He was 
defeated at Ancyra in 1402, and the conquest of 
the Ottomans was checked for the short period 
of fifty years. 

In 1453, Mohammed II., the Great, again 
landed an army of 200,000 men against Con- 
stantinople, which was defended by a small force 
of Greek soldiers. The siege was short and the 
city was captured in the same year, the emperor 
Constantine XI. meeting his death in the struggle. 
The rule of the Turks was now extended over the 
greater part of south-eastern Europe, and much 
of western Asia and northern Africa. The fall 
of Constantinople caused great dismay throughout 
Christendom, but no united effort was made to 
expel the invaders from European soil. However, 
in their progress westward the Turks were, checked 
by the Hungarians on the continent, and in the 
Mediterranean by the Knights of St. John, who 
had established themselves on the island of 
Rhodes. Mohammed II. gained a foothold in 
Italy and established the crescent in Calabria, but 
after his death the limits of the Ottoman empire 
were never materially advanced. 

F — Growth of the Towns 

356. Relation of a City to its Overlord. — The 

Goths, Franks, and other Teutonic invaders were 
not used to city life, and the cities that had arisen 
in central Europe under Roman influence lost 



440 MEDIJEVAL HISTORY 

much of their former importance and local free- 
dom. In England, the Angles and Saxons seem 
to have almost destroyed them. In southern 
France, in Italy, and in Spain the cities escaped 
destruction, but the influence of the invasions 
was accountable for their decline. After the 
invaders had become settled, the cities began to 
revive and to regain something of their former 
importance, and new cities were founded to take 
the places of those destroyed. With the estab- 
lishment of feudalism in Europe the cities became 
a part of the system, and in most cases the counts, 
who had been put at the head of the cities by 
Charles the Great, were able to assume a feudal 
proprietorship ; in others, the cities became a part 
of the fief in which they happened to be situated. 
They were subject to all the duties incident to the 
system of feudalism, were compelled to pay a tri- 
bute to their lord, and whenever the lords were in 
need of funds, they naturally looked to the cities 
to supply them, as they were, on account of their 
manufactures and industries, the wealthiest mem- 
bers' of the feudal system. These exactions in 
time became unendurable, and the cities revolted 
against their overlords, the struggle ending in 
what is known as the enfranchisement of the 
towns. In the meantime there had grown up in 
the cities a rich merchant class, commanding 
resources and means for carrying on the struggle, 
and many of the cities were placed in a position 
which enabled them to purchase, or wrest by 



THE AGE OF REVIVAL 44 1 

force of arms, charters from their lords. These 
charters did not give them complete independence, 
but while they still acknowledged the lords as 
suzerains, they gained the privilege of managing 
their own affairs. With the increase of their 
rights, the cities gained rapidly in strength and 
wealth, and some of them, especially in Italy, 
were able to free themselves entirely from de- 
pendence upon their lords, and became in effect 
independent states. Some of the German cities 
attained the same position, though in a less 
marked degree, but none of the French cities were 
able to rid themselves entirely of their feudal 
lords. 

357. Rise of the Three Chief Italian Cities. — 
Venice was founded by refugees at the time of the 
incursions into Italy of the Huns, under Attila, in 
452. In 697 the Dogate was established, the 
Doge being then elected by the people. Towards 
the end of the twelfth century the Great Council, 
consisting of four hundred and eighty members, 
usurped the right to elect the Doge. At the close 
of the thirteenth century the council declared 
itself to be hereditary. In order to check all 
opposition, the Great Council established a 
Council of Ten, with unlimited power. This 
council prevented all uprisings of the people and 
gave the city a stable and durable government 
such as was possessed by no other city in Italy. 
Venice came into possession of not only the islands 
of the eastern Mediterranean, but also of some 



442 MEDIAEVAL HISTORY 

parts of the Balkan peninsula, and in Italy itself 
she conquered the cities of Treviso, Padua, 
Vicenza, and a few other places. In the fifteenth 
century Venice came into conflict with Milan, 
and from that time her power steadily diminished, 
especially as the discovery of the new path to 
India, around the Cape of Good Hope, by Vasco 
da Gama, caused much of the trade of Europe 
for the East to be conducted from ports on the 
Atlantic. 

Genoa was the most formidable rival of Venice. 
The period of the greatness of Genoa dates from 
the year 1261, when the city aided the Greek 
emperor in regaining Constantinople. As a re- 
ward Genoa received the monopoly of the trade 
on the Black Sea. This brought the city into 
conflict with Venice, and for two hundred years 
their fleets contested for the supremacy of the sea. 
In 1380 the fleet of the Genoese was defeated by 
the Venetians at Chioggia, and from then on the 
power of Genoa declined and received the final 
blow after the capture of Constantinople by the 
Turks in 1453, when the ships of the Genoese were 
driven from the Black Sea and most of their trade 
with Asia Minor was broken up. 

Florence, because of her inland location, could 
not engage in those naval enterprises which 
brought power and wealth to Venice and Genoa, 
but through the skill, enterprise, industry, and 
genius of her inhabitants she became the great 
manufacturing, financial, literary, and art centre 



THE AGE OF REVIVAL 443 

of the Middle Ages. Among her citizens are 
counted such illustrious men as Dante, Petrarch, 
Boccaccio, Machiavelli, Michael Angelo, Galileo, 
Amerigo Vespucci, and the Medici. Florence was 
the scene of continuous struggles between the 
Guelphs and Ghibellines (see section 379), in the 
thirteenth century. The family of the Medici, 
having grown rich, took advantage of these 
troubles and used their wealth to advance their 
political aspirations. Florence attained its great- 
est fame under Lorenzo the Magnificent, in 1470. 
The Medici were expelled in 1494, but were later 
recalled and became dukes of Florence. In 1590 
the city became the capital of Tuscany. Florence 
enjoys a great reputation at the present time, on 
account of her superb palaces, her magnificent 
churches, museums, and universities. 

358. The Hanseatic League. — The Hanseatic 
League was a confederation of about eighty of the 
most important German cities. This union was 
suggested by the need of mutual defence against 
piracy on sea, pillage on land, and the exactions 
of the nobles. In order to facilitate trade, the 
League established in different parts of the world 
trading-posts and warehouses. The four most 
noted centres of the trade of the Hanseatic League 
were the cities of Bruges, London, Bergen, and 
Novgorod. From a.d. 1350 until about 1500 the 
League monopolised the trade of, and practically 
ruled, north-western Europe. 

The causes of the decline of the League were 



444 MEDIEVAL HISTORY 

the maritime discoveries of the fifteenth cent- 
ury, which changed the routes of trade in the 
North as well as those of the South ; also the form- 
ation of strong governments, which gave the 
merchants the necessary protection on land and 
sea and thus partly destroyed the necessity for 
the existence of the League, doing away with one 
of the principal reasons that had brought about 
its foundation; and lastly the growing expense 
necessary for the maintenance of membership in 
the League, because of ambitious projects of the 
association. In the wars following the Reforma- 
tion many of the members of the League fought on 
opposite sides, and with the growth of the strength 
of the government, the cities were losing their 
independent character and becoming component 
parts of the state to which they naturally be- 
longed. 

359. The Influence of the Cities upon Politics. — 
The cities were the centres of the industrial and 
commercial life of the Middle Ages, and laid the 
foundation of the system of international ex- 
change and traffic which is a characteristic 
feature of modem civilisation. They exerted a 
great influence upon the development of Europe 
in art, politics, and commerce, and the commer- 
cial spirit that dominated the cities contributed 
much to the great intellectual movement known 
as the Revival of Learning, while municipal 
freedom was the germ of national liberty. 



THE AGE OF REVIVAL 445 

G — The Revival of Learning 

360. Scholasticism. — Scholasticism was a fusion 
of Christianity and Aristotelian logic, and its chief 
feature was the application of the art of dialectics 
to questions of metaphysics and theology. In 
its later stages it might be defined as an effort to 
reconcile revelation and reason, faith and phi- 
losophy. The chief schoolmen were Albertus 
Magnus, Roger Bacon, Thomas Aquinas, and Duns 
Scotus. 

Albertus Magnus was born in 1205, and died at 
Cologne in 1280. He was famous for his ex- 
tensive learning, which gained for him the title 
"Doctor Universalis," and he wrote a number of 
works, mostly on natural science, which may be 
said to be a summing up of the learning of his 
time. 

Roger Bacon was born about 1 2 1 4 ; died at 
Oxford in 1292. His writings were declared 
heretical, and he spent several years in prison. 
In about 1265 he was invited by Pope Clement to 
write a treatise on the sciences, which resulted in 
his composing his chief work, the Opus Majus. 

Thomas Aquinas was born in Italy in 1225; 
died at Terracina in 1274. He was surnamed 
"Doctor Angelicus," and wrote the Summa 
Theologicu, which was republished by Pope Leo 
XIII. in 1883. 

Duns Scotus was born at Dunse, Scotland, in 
about 1265, and died at Cologne in 1308. He 



446 MEDIMVAL HISTORY 

was the founder of the system called Scotism, as 
opposed to the system of Thomas Aquinas, called 
Thomism. He became a Franciscan friar, re- 
moved to Paris, where he was made regent of the 
university, and gained the title of " Doctor 
Subtilis." He died at Cologne while on a mission 
in the interest of his order. His name was used 
as an appellative, to denote a very learned man, 
and its application satirically to ignorant and 
stupid persons gave rise to its use in the present 
sense. 

361. The Rise of the Universities. — The history 
of scholasticism is closely related to the history 
of the universities, which became a powerful 
agency in the revival of learning. The univers- 
ities were expansions of the old cathedral and 
abbey schools, and the transformation was 
brought about largely through the reputation of 
the schoolmen, who attracted such multitudes 
of students that it was found necessary to re- 
organise the schools on a broader basis. The 
University of Paris was the first founded, then 
followed Bologna. Other important universities 
were those of Oxford, Cambridge, Prague, also 
Padua, Toulouse, Montpellier, and Salamanca. 

362. Humanism. — A great impetus was given 
to the revival of the study of classical Greek 
which had been originated by the so-called 
" Humanists " in the beginning of the fourteenth 
century by the arrival in Italy of many Eastern 
scholars, who were leaving the crumbling Greek 



THE AGE OF REVIVAL 447 

empire and seeking new fields for their activity. 
They brought with them many valuable manu- 
scripts of the old masters, which greatly added 
to the enthusiasm for the classical authors. 

The wonderful revival of interest in the treas- 
ures of classical literature is sometimes explained 
by the bringing to light of some old manuscripts, 
like the discovery of a copy of the Pandects of 
Justinian, but the movement was not due to an 
accident, and must be ascribed to many gradual 
influences. The growth of the cities and the ex- 
pansion of their interests led to the study of 
Roman law, and the study of the Latin jurists 
caused the scholars to turn to the Latin poets. 
As many of the Roman writers drew most of 
their material from Greek originals, it was natural 
that the study of the Greek classics followed as the 
next step. 

Petrarch and Boccaccio were the most import- 
ant leaders of the Humanists, as the promoters of 
the revival are known. Petrarch's regard for the 
old Greek and Latin writers amounted almost to 
a worship, and he often wrote love-letters to his 
favourite authors. In one of these, addressed to 
Homer, he laments that not more than ten per- 
sons could be found in all Italy who could appre- 
ciate the Iliad. 

The enthusiasm for the classics was first kindled 
in Italy, but before the close of the fifteenth 
century it had infected the countries beyond 
the Alps. The New Learning found a place in 



448 MEDIMVAL HISTORY 

the schools and colleges of France, Germany, and 
England. Latin had already been a requirement 
in a liberal education ; to this was now added 
Greek, and from that day its study has main- 
tained a high place in all the institutions of 
learning. 

363. The Renaissance. — In Italy the conditions 
were favourable to foster a movement like the 
Renasisance. It had more of the Roman civilisa- 
tion, and from Rome, with her monuments and 
wealth of tradition, was drawn an additional in- 
spiration. The humanistic spirit took complete 
possession of society, and produced the result that 
had been predicted by the monks. The study of 
the old pagan writers brought paganism into 
existence again, so that to be learned in Greek 
excited suspicions of heresy. In Italy the hu- 
manistic movement amounted to a passion, a 
devotion to classical literature, but in Germany 
to this enthusiasm was added the interest in the 
study of the Bible, so that the restoration of 
classical literature and art in the passionate South 
became a revival of primitive Christianity in the 
more serious and less sensuous North. 

While in Italy the movement led to an tan- 
paralleled activity in the literature and arts of the 
ancients, to the neglect of the national literature, 
— which had been started into life with much 
promise by Dante Alighieri, — coupled with a 
frightful relaxation of manners and morality; in 
the less impressionable people of the North it 



THE AGE OF REVIVAL 449 

inspired the desire for moral reform. Thus, in 
Italy grand palaces and churches were being 
erected, filled with statues and paintings, while 
in Germany the Latin, Greek, and Hebrew 
sources of Christianity were slowly being redis- 
covered, and the desire for a purer faith gradu- 
ally increased. 

364. The Invention of Printing. — Printing from 
movable type was invented by Johannes Guten- 
berg of Mainz, about a.d. 1438, but his claim to 
this invention has been disputed. His claim 
rests mainly on a legal decision rendered at 
Strassburg in 1439, which states that he entered 
into partnership with certain persons to carry on 
a secret operation involving the use of a press, 
with an attachment, which may have been the 
type-mould. In 1450 he formed a partnership 
with Faust, a money-lender, who, in 1455, after 
having demanded payment for money loaned, 
seized the entire outfit of Gutenberg and con- 
tinued his business in partnership with Schoeffer, 
who later became his son-in-law. To Faust and 
Schoeffer must be given the credit for having 
substituted metal types for the wooden types 
originally used by Gutenberg. 

The invention of printing, by multiplying books, 
made it possible for the lower orders of society to 
attain such culture as had hitherto been the 
exclusive privilege of the priest and the noble, 
and thus it gave a great impulse to the human- 
istic movement and to the general intellectual 



45 O MEDIMVAL HISTORY 

development of Europe as well. It was one of the 
great factors that aided in the Revival of Learn- 
ing, and made possible the Reformation. 

H — England 

365. The Magna Charta Libertatum. — "Magna 
Charta" is the great charter of the liberties of 
England, granted by King John at Runnymede, 
in 1 2 15. King John was tyrannical, unscrupu- 
lous, and wicked, and his policy led his barons to 
an open revolt. John was forced to meet them 
in a council at Runnymede, a meadow on the 
Thames, and there affixed his seal to the instru- 
ment the barons had prepared. 

The most important provisions of Magna 
Charta are that no freeman shall be imprisoned 
without due process of law, — that is, by lawful 
judgment of his peers, — and that no taxes shall 
be imposed in the kingdom, save several feudal 
aids specified, unless by the common council of 
the realm. The remaining part of the charter is 
directed against the abuses of the king's power as 
a feudal superior. 

King John often broke his oath, and the barons 
finally offered the crown to Louis, the son of 
Philip II. Upon the death, however, of King 
John, they again turned to his family, and Henry 
III., his son, was installed as king, although only 
nine years of age. He was just as unscrupulous 
as his father had been before him. The barons 



THE AGE OF REVIVAL 45 I 

made war on him, under the leadership of Simon 
de Montfort. In 1265 a council was called, or 
Parliament, in which, besides the barons, sat also 
two citizens from certain towns. This was the 
first appearance of commoners in the Parliament, 
and the beginning of the House of Commons. 

366. The Hundred Years' War. — The series of 
wars between England and France, from about 
1338 until 1453, is called the Hundred Years' War. 
It began in Scotland, where in 1331 Edward 
Baliol laid claim to the crown and asked the help 
of Edward III. David Bruce, the other claimant, 
fled to France. Philip VI. was trying to gain 
possession of the Netherlands, and when Edward 
III. recerved some of the political refugees from 
that land, Philip VI. was offended. Edward III. 
went to Flanders in 1338, and there was per- 
suaded to assume the title of king of France. 
War broke out, but little fighting was done until 
1346, when Edward won the battle of Crecy,. and 
in the next year he took Calais. A truce was 
then made which was kept until 1355, in which 
year Edward, known as the Black Prince, ravaged 
southern France. At Poitiers he was met by a 
French army much superior to his own, but was 
victorious, and even took King John prisoner, 
carrying him to England. In 1360 Edward made 
peace, resigning his claim to the French throne, 
and the war practically ceased until 141 3, when 
Henry V. acceded to the throne. Henry V. re- 
newed the claim upon the French crown, invaded 



452 MEDIEVAL HISTORY 

France, but met with defeat at Harfleur, and lost 
the greater part of his troops by disease. In 
141 5 he met a large French army at Agincourt 
and won a signal victory. France was divided 
into two factions, one under the Duke of Bur- 
gundy, the other under the Count of Armagnac. 
The Burgundians went over to the English, and 
in 1420 Henry V. was acknowledged regent of 
France. In 1422 both Henry V. and Charles VI. 
died. Henry VI., a child only nine months old, 
was acknowledged in England and in the larger 
part of France, where the Duke of Bedford was 
made regent. Charles VII. was King of France 
south of the Loire. Bedford besieged Orleans in 
1428, and was meeting with satisfactory'progress, 
when the French rose under the inspiration of the 
famous Maid of Orleans, Joan of Arc. She ex- 
cited such enthusiasm that the French gained 
several victories over the English, and finally, in 
1453, the English were entirely driven out of 
France, retaining only Calais. This closed the 
Hundred Years' War. 

367. The Wars of the Roses. — The struggle in 
England between the rival houses of Lancaster 
and York, at first for the control of the king, and 
later for the possession of the crown, is called the 
Wars of the Roses (145 5-1 485), a red rose being 
the symbol of Lancaster, the white rose the symbol 
of York. In 1461, Henry VI. was driven out of 
England by the Duke of York, who had himself 
crowned as Edward IV. The reigns of Edward 



THE AGE OF REVIVAL 453 

IV. and his successors, Edward V. and Richard. 
III., were filled with internal troubles and in- 
trigues, until the war was brought to a close by 
the defeat and death of Richard III. at Bosworth, 
in 1485, when a Lancastrian earl, son of Edward 
Tudor, came to the throne as Henry VII. Henry 
VII. married a princess of York and thus united 
the conflicting interests. 

368. Chaucer and Wycliffe. — Geoffrey Chaucer 
was the first English poet, and the second in genius 
only to Shakespeare. He is called the Father of 
English Poetry. His greatest work is the Can- 
terbury Tales. He was born in about 1328 and 
died in 1400. 

John Wycliffe, the reformer, was born in about 
1324 and died in 1384. He differed from the 
Church on many points in the interpretation of 
the Bible, and attacked with great fierceness the 
authority of the Pope and the doctrine of trans- 
substantiation and the mass. He met with con- 
siderable opposition, which in time developed his 
ideas until he broke out in open hostility to the 
Church in almost everything. It was owing to his 
preachings that the Peasants' Revolt broke out, 
and the violence committed so frightened the 
nobility that Wycliffe 's movement fell into dis- 
repute. His followers, known as Lollards, or 
Babblers, were repressed and persecuted. He 
himself was bitterly opposed, but suffered no per- 
sonal violence, although he was forced to retire 
to his home at Lutterworth, where he spent his 



454 MEDIjEVAL history 

last years at work on a revision of his translation 
of the Bible. He was ordered to appear at Rome 
to defend himself, when death overtook him, in 
1384. 

/ — France 

369. The English Possessions in France. — The 

battle of Hastings (see Section 341), in 1066, 
made William of Normandy the king of England, 
but he also retained his possessions in France as 
a fief from the king of France. When Henry, 
Count of Anjou, came to the throne of England, 
these possessions were greatly enlarged by the 
acquisition of the duchy of Guienne through 
marriage, and the larger part of his dominions 
was in France. The French kings were jealously 
watching for an opportunity to seize the English 
possessions on French soil, and this opportunity 
finally came when King John, in 1199, succeeded 
Richard the Lion - hearted upon the English 
throne. John was acknowledged as king in 
England, Normandy, and Aquitaine, but Anjou 
and Touraine proclaimed Arthur, the son of his 
elder brother Geoffrey, as their king. Arthur was 
taken prisoner, and, it is said, was murdered by his 
uncle at Rouen. This brutal outrage caused the 
French provinces to revolt, and the French king 
marched upon Normandy, which he conquered 
with ease, because of the utter absence of any 
popular opposition on the part of the Normans. 
The efforts of King John to regain the lost tern- 



THE AGE OF REVIVAL 45$ 

tones were fruitless ; his treasure became ex- 
hausted and his mercenaries went over to the 
French king. 

370. The Crusade against the Albigenses. — Dur- 
ing the age of the crusades the religious en- 
thusiasm was directed against the heretics as well 
as against the infidels. In France the attention 
of Pope Innocent III. was directed to the existence 
of heresy in the southern provinces, and he re- 
solved to take action against Raymond, Count of 
Toulouse. The Pope called upon the king of 
France to lead a crusade against the Albigenses, 
but the king held aloof from the enterprise. 
However, a great number of the French nobles 
responded eagerly to the call of the Church, and 
three armies invaded the south of France, under 
the command of Simon de Montfort, an ambi- 
tious, fanatical, and cruel man. They attacked 
Beziers and the city was taken. The conquerors 
hesitated to slay, not being able to distinguish 
the heretics. "Kill them all," said one of the 
leaders; "God will know His own." The order 
was obeyed literally and thirty thousand were 
slain. Raymond hoped to be spared, but was 
told that he could receive the Pope's pardon only 
on condition that he should dismiss his soldiers, 
destroy his castles, and go on a pilgrimage to the 
Holy City. He refused to listen to such terms, 
and the attack was renewed. Raymond was de- 
feated and compelled to seek refuge in flight to 
Aragon. Pedro II. of Aragon, in order to put a 



456 MEDIEVAL HISTORY 

stop to the invasions by the men of the North, 
crossed the mountains with a large army, but 
met with a defeat at Muret, where he himself was 
killed in battle. The fate of Languedoc (from 
Langue d'Oc, language of Provence) was thus 
decided, the fiefs of Raymond and of the deposed 
lords of the country passing to Simon de Montfort. 
The latter was killed before Toulouse, of which 
the son of Raymond had again taken possession, 
and the heir of Simon, Amaury, offered to cede 
the country to the French king, being unable to 
defend it. In 1299, when the fury of the crusade 
had broken out afresh, the country of Languedoc 
was ceded to the king. Prince Raymond sub- 
mitted to the Church, and the heresy was sup- 
pressed by the cruelties of the Inquisition, which 
was now set up against the sectarians by the Pope. 
371. The Beginning of the States-General. — The 
most important event of the reign of Philip IV., 
called the Fair (who reigned from 1285 until 
1 3 14), was the calling of the Royal Council in 
1302, to which he invited the representatives of 
the burghers, or inhabitants of the cities, in order 
to ascertain whether he could have the support 
of all his people in case he should be compelled 
to proceed with extreme measures against the 
Papacy, with which a dispute had arisen re- 
specting the control of the offices and revenues of 
the French Church. Before this, the Council had 
consisted of representatives of the nobles and 
the clergy only; now were added representatives 



THE AGE OF REVIVAL 457 

of the Third Estate, and the assembly henceforth 
was called the States-General. The influence of 
the Third Estate in France remained practically 
nothing until the time of the French Revolution, 
and it had no such history as the House of Com- 
mons in England. 

372. France under the House of Valois. — The 
house of Valois reigned in France from 1328 until 
1498. Philip VI., son of Charles of Valois, 
reigned from 1328 until 1350; John II. from 1350 
until 1364; then followed Charles V., the Wise, 
from 1364 until 1380; Charles VI., from 1380 
until 1422; Charles VII., from 1422 until 1461 ; 
Louis XI., from 1461 until 1483; and Charles 
VIII., from 1483 until 1498. The events of chief 
importance falling in the period of the reign of 
the house of Valois are the struggle between Eng- 
land and France, known as the Hundred Years' 
War (see Section 366), and the invasion of Italy by 
the last of the direct line of the Valois, Charles 
VIII. 

373. Invasion of Italy by Charles VIII. — Charles 
VIII. renewed the claims to the kingdom of 
Naples, which he had derived from the house 
of Anjou, in order to achieve great things with 
the sword, being eager for a brilliant and glori- 
ous career after the fashion of Charlemagne. He 
refused to listen to the wise counsels of old poli- 
ticians, and having been appealed to by the Mar- 
quis of Saluzzo, by some Neapolitan barons who 
were dissatisfied with their king, by Savonarola, 



458 MEDIAEVAL HISTORY 

who regarded Charles VIII. as an envoy of God 
to scourge Italy, and by the cardinals who were 
the enemies of Pope Alexander VI., he decided to 
invade Italy and make it the nucleus of a powerful 
empire. He assembled a paid army of about 50,- 
000 men and crossed into Italy, which was again 
seized with a fear akin to that preserved by the 
memory of the invasions of the barbarians. 
Charles entered Florence in triumph, and the 
gates of Rome were opened to him by the car- 
dinals and nobles, who urged him to depose the 
Pope. Naples fell without a blow, Ferdinand I. 
having died, and his son Alfonso II. having ab 
dicated in terror. 

Charles VIII. had himself crowned King of 
Naples, Emperor of the East, and King of Jeru- 
salem, and the news of his rapid conquest spread 
afar, so that even the Greeks w T ere expecting the 
"Great King of the Franks" as their liberator. 
At Naples Charles suddenly learned that some of 
the sovereigns had formed a league against him 
in order to cut off his retreat from Italy and 
to reduce France to its former limits. He left 
four thousand men at Naples and marched with 
the rest to the Apennines. After crossing the 
mountains he met a strong army of the allies, 
and although he succeeded in defeating it, the 
victory cost him the greater part of his own forces, 
and with the remnants he barely made good his 
retreat to France. 

374. French Literature. — By contact of the old 



THE AGE OF REVIVAL 459 

Latin speech with the language of the Teutonic 
invaders there arose two distinct dialects in 
France, called the Langue d'Oc and the Langue 
d'Oil. The Langue d'Oc, or Provencal, was the 
language of the South, while the Langue d'Oil, 
or French proper, was the language of the 
North. At the beginning of the twelfth century, 
the literature of the country began to develop in 
the songs of the troubadours of the South. How- 
ever, this literature was destined to an early 
decay, having originated in the home of the 
Albigensian heresy. When the counts of Tou- 
louse were defeated, the Troubadours lost their 
most liberal patrons and soon became extinct. 
The present position of the Provencal among the 
living languages is about the same as that of the 
Celtic tongue in England. The compositions of 
the Troubadours were almost exclusively lyrical, 
consisting of love-songs and satires. The songs 
of the poets of the north of France, called the 
Trouveurs, were epic, or narrative poems, called 
romances. Although this literature was crude 
and coarse, it nevertheless exercised a most help- 
ful and inspiring influence upon the literatures of 
Europe. Besides the narrative poems the North 
produced a great number of fables and allego- 
ries. Among the prose writers, the first of real 
importance is Froissart, who acquired lasting 
fame by his chronicles in which he describes the 
celebrated French and English characters of the 
period. 



460 MEDIEVAL HISTORY 

J— Spain 

375. Spain: Union of Castile and Aragon. — The 
unity of Spain was secured by the marriage of 
Ferdinand and Isabella, who were the heirs of the 
two largest Christian kingdoms of the Spanish 
peninsula, Aragon and Castile. Both of these 
kingdoms had gained their importance by cham- 
pioning the national cause against the Moors, 
who had overrun the peninsula (see Section 311). 
By the marriage of the representatives of the two 
rival houses the interests of both were combined, 
and the efforts of both were now directed against 
the Moors. The Mohammedan possessions were 
reduced, in 1492 Granada, the last foothold of 
the Moors, was captured, and the Mohammedan 
power in Spain was brought to an end. After the 
fall of Granada began for Spain a period of terri- 
torial expansion which is almost unparalleled 
in history. In the same year in which the Moor- 
ish kingdom was destroyed, Columbus discovered 
America, and thus the dominions of the New World 
were opened to Spain. Ferdinand then succeeded 
in defeating the French and seized the kingdom 
of Naples for himself in 1504. In 15 12 he ac- 
quired the part of the kingdom of Navarre which 
lay upon the Spanish slope of the Pyrenees. Thus 
when Ferdinand upon his death was succeeded by 
his grandson Charles, the young king found him- 
self the leading sovereign of Europe (15 16), who 
both in interests and resources easily outranked 



THE AGE OF REVIVAL 46 1 

all rivals. In 15 19 Charles was made emperor 
(see Section 394). 

376. The Inquisition. — The Inquisition, called 
the Holy Office, was instituted by Pope Innocent 
III. in the thirteenth century, for the suppression 
of heresy by the persecution and punishment of 
heretics, and was extended to France, Spain, 
Italy, Germany, and other countries (see Section 
393). The first inquisitors were the bishops in 
their own dioceses, with special assistants, but 
after the formal organisation of the Inquisition it 
was placed in charge of the Dominican order, with 
headquarters at Rome. 

The Spanish Inquisition was put under the 
control of the state during the reign of Ferdinand 
and Isabella, and it has become noted for the 
severity with which it interpreted its task. It 
became the instrument of the most incredible 
tyranny, and although at first the Jews were the 
chief victims, later the persecution was extended 
to the Moors and Protestants, as well as to ene- 
mies of the Government. It is said that during 
the reign of the first Grand Inquisitor, Tomas de 
Torquemada, over 10,000 persons were burned 
alive at the Autos da fe, and many thousands 
were condemned to penalties scarcely less terrible. 
The Inquisition succeeded in suppressing freedom 
of thought in Spain, and it helped also to destroy 
the rising energies of the nation. 

377. The First Spanish Power of Note. — During 
the reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the growth of 



462 MEDIEVAL HISTORY 

the royal power was a matter of the greatest im- 
portance. The power of the feudal lords in Spain 
was so great that the whole country suffered be- 
cause of their rapacious and quarrelsome charac- 
ter. Ferdinand and Isabella joined the league 
of the cities against the aristocracy and with 
their aid put down the robber-knights, securing 
peace for the land. Then they turned their atten- 
tion to the feudal parliament, called the Cortes, 
and restricted its influence. The strength of 
many of the greatest feudal houses was under- 
mined by various decrees from the courts, which 
took away from them grants of land conferred 
upon unworthy favourites by the weak predeces- 
sors of Ferdinand and also by the appointment 
of persons outside of the ranks of the ancient 
nobility to positions of dignity and importance. 
The royal Court was maintained with such splen- 
dour and magnificence that even the wealthiest 
of the nobles were unable to approach it, and the 
central power of the kingly office was held in 
higher estimation, the king being regarded with 
greater respect and reverence. 

K — Germany 

378. Dismemberment instead of Centralisation. — 
After the death of Charles the Great (a.d. 814), 
his great empire was divided by the treaty of 
Verdun into three kingdoms, which were given to 
his three grandsons, Charles, Lothair, and Louis. 



THE AGE OF REVIVAL 463 

Under Charles the Fat the three kingdoms were 
again united for a short time, but after his deposi- 
tion in 887 they broke apart for ever. With the 
death of the son and successor of Arnulf (who had 
become king after the deposition of Charles the 
Fat), known as Ludwig the Child, the line of 
Charles the Great came to an end in Germany, 
and Conrad of Franconia was elected king by the 
German princes and nobles. Conrad was suc- 
ceeded by Henry the Fowler, and the son and 
successor of the latter, Otto I., called the Great, 
renewed the Roman empire. In contrast to the 
conditions in France, England, and Spain, where 
the kings were gradually consolidating their do- 
minions and by centralising the power of the gov- 
ernment were establishing strong monarchies on 
the ruins of feudalism, the German kingdom was 
hardly more than a very loose confederation, not- 
withstanding the fact that the various tribes 
which constituted the eastern Frankish kingdom, 
the ' Saxons, Suabians, Thuringians, Bavarians, 
and the Franks, were closely allied in race, man- 
ners, language, and social organisation. One of 
the principal reasons for this must be sought in 
the unfortunate policy of Otto I., and of other 
German princes, who gave themselves up to the 
shadowy dream of a world-empire, so that they 
neglected their home affairs while they were 
wasting their energies on foreign conquests of 
doubtful purpose. The attempts to revive the 
ambitions of Charlemagne for the establishment 



464 MEDIEVAL HISTORY 

of a world-empire not only brought loss and dis- 
aster to Germany, but the continued invasions of 
the German rulers into Italy delayed the national- 
isation of the Italian people for centuries, while 
the policy was one of the causes of the postpone- 
ment of the unification of Germany for at least 
four hundred years. 

379. The House of Hohenstaufen. — Germany 
was under the rule of the Hohenstaufens from 
1 138 until 1254. The matter of chief importance 
of this period is the long and bitter conflict be- 
tween them and the Popes. Germany and Italy 
were divided into two great parties, the Guelphs, 
or adherents of the Pope, and the Ghibellines, or 
adherents of the emperor. After a struggle lasting 
for a century not only the power of the Hohen- 
staufens was broken, but the family itself was des- 
troyed. Conradin, the last of the Hohenstaufens, 
was taken prisoner in battle by Charles of Anjou, 
and was beheaded as a rebel at Naples, in 1268. 

The most noted ruler of the house of Hohen- 
staufen was Frederick I., called Barbarossa, be- 
cause of his red beard. He succeeded Conrad III. 
in 1 1 5 2 . His reign was chiefly occupied by many 
petty wars against the turbulent nobility and six 
expeditions to Italy, made for the purpose of re- 
storing the imperial power in Lombardy. In 1 1 89 
he joined the third crusade and was drowned in the 
river Kalykadnos in Asia Minor. 

At the close of the reign of the Hohenstaufens 
there were in Germany not less than two hundred 



THE AGE OF REVIVAL 465 

and seventy virtually independent states, the 
princes and nobles having taken advantage of the 
prolonged absences of the emperors to extend 
their own powers and to free themselves almost 
completely from the suzerainty of the German 
rulers. 

380. The Hussites.— The Hussites, or followers 
of John Huss, organised themselves after the 
death of John Huss (a.d. 141 5) into a politico- 
religious party, and waged a fierce civil war 
against Sigismund, who in 141 9 had become the 
lawful king of Bohemia. The Hussites at first 
were victorious, but finally religious and social 
dissensions arose among themselves. The con- 
servative Bohemians became alarmed at the 
radical measures proposed by the fanatical party, 
and made peace with the emperor, thenceforth 
aiding him in restoring order. The chief leader 
of the Hussites was John Zizka. 

The doctrines of John Huss were those of Wy- 
cliffe, and he sought to bring about a reformation 
of ecclesiastical abuses without separating himself 
from the Roman Catholic Church. When Pope 
John XXIII. issued a bull declaring a crusade 
against Ladislaus, King of Naples and Hungary, 
Huss denounced this action of the Pope, and with 
Jerome of Prague stigmatized the sale of indul- 
gences, with the result that he was excommuni- 
cated in 1 41 3. In 1 41 4 he was called before the 
Council of Constance and was burned at the stake 
as a heretic in 141 5, notwithstanding the fact 



466 MEDIEVAL HISTORY 

that the emperor Sigismund had given him a 
safe-conduct. The Hussites, who take their 
name from him, now commenced their warfare, 
which lasted until 1434. 

From 1 41 9 until 1425 the Hussites were on the 
defensive, and did not begin offensive operations 
until Procopius, the successor of John Zizka, in- 
vaded Germany in 1427. Zizka built the strong- 
hold of Tabor, defeated the imperialists and 
repelled them from the so-called £izka-berg 
(Zizka's mountain) in 1420. In 1422 Zizka 
gained another important victory at Deutsch- 
Brod, and invaded Moravia and Austria. After 
his death the Hussites continued their victories, 
defeating the crusaders sent against them at 
Aussig in 1426, and finally at Taus, in 1431. In 
1433 the so-called Compactata were signed, but 
the T^borites, the radical party among the Huss- 
ites, so named as distinguished from the conserva- 
tive party, the Calixtines, were not satisfied with 
the terms obtained and again took the field, with 
disastrous results to themselves. They were de- 
feated at Hfib, near Bohmisch-Brod, in 1434, and 
soon afterward were compelled to surrender all 
their strongholds. Hussitism as a form, a Christ- 
ian profession, became extinct at the time of the 
Reformation, when a part of the Hussites attached 
themselves to the Roman Church, while the rest 
acknowledged the Lutheran or Reformed creed. 

381. Early German Literature. — The first pro- 
duction of German literature is the Niebelungen 



THE AGE OF REVIVAL 467 

Lied, the great German mediaeval epic. It was 
reduced to writing in about 1200, while Germany- 
was under the rule of the Hohenstaufens. Under 
the same emperors nourished the so-called Minne- 
singers. They were chiefly men of noble descent, 
and their tender and chivalrous songs were instru- 
mental in softening the manners and lifting the 
hearts of the German people. 

L — Italy 

382. Italy from 1200 until 1450. — At the end of 
the Middle Ages Italy was without a national or 
regular government. This was caused in a large 
measure by the constant quarrels between Em- 
peror and Pope. However, some efforts were 
made to effect a .political union, and the most 
noteworthy among these was the attempt of the 
famous hero Rienzi, Tribune of Rome. Rienzi, 
who was of low birth, conceived the idea of de- 
livering the capital from the misrule of the nobles. 
By his eloquence he succeeded in inciting the 
people to a revolt, and was placed at the head of 
a government for Rome, with the title of Tribune. 
His sudden elevation however seemed to have 
turned his head completely, and after committing 
many follies on account of his vanity, he was 
forced to resign, was excommunicated by the 
Pope, and went into exile. After a time he was 
recalled, but was assassinated in a sudden up- 
rising of the people. 



468 MEDIMVAL HISTORY 

383. Savonarola. — Savonarola was born at Fer- 
rara in 1452, and was executed at Florence in 
1498. He was a moral and political, as well as 
a religious reformer. After having brought about 
a religious revival by his powerful eloquence and 
denunciation of the vice prevalent both in the 
Church and in the state, he was instrumental in 
overthrowing the Medici and in the restoration of 
the republic in 1494. For four years the power 
of government rested with him, and he strove 
to accomplish various works of reform. He in- 
curred the enmity of Pope Alexander VI., whom 
he had denounced, and was excommunicated in 
1497, an d finally arrested and put to death at the 
instance of the Pope. 



Modern History 

From the Discovery of America (1492) by 
Columbus to the Present Time 



469 



INTRODUCTION 

384. The Discoveries. — We now come to a period 
of adventure, both physical and philosophical, 
marked by the discoveries of Columbus and his 
fellow-travellers, and the religious revolt of 
Luther and his followers. It was a time of un- 
rest and speculation, when men broke the fetters 
that bound them to the past and reached out 
to grasp the New. A multitude of events and 
movements all contribute to our present status 
of civilisation, but from that time there is no 
backward movement. 

385. Christopher Columbus. — Christopher Colum- 
bus was born at Genoa, in 1435. He received 
a good education and then devoted himself to the 
sea. For twenty years he traversed the Mediter- 
ranean and the parts of the Atlantic adjacent to 
Europe ; he also visited Iceland. Then the idea 
occurred to him to reach the Indies by crossing 
the ocean westward. He first made a formal ap- 
plication to the king of Portugal, but his plan 
was declared absurd. He then approached the 
Courts of Genoa and Venice, but they both refused 
him their aid. An appeal to the dukes of southern 
Spain was also turned away, and he then repaired 

471 



472 MODERN HISTORY 

to the Spanish Court at Salamanca, whither he 
had followed Ferdinand from Cordova. The 
king heard him with indifference and turned over 
the matter to a Council of Ecclesiastics. This 
party declared the plans to be against the Scrip- 
tures, and Columbus then set out for the Court of 
France. On the way he met De Marchena, the 
confessor of the queen, who became so interested 
in the scheme that he submitted it to Isabella, 
who, after the declaration of Ferdinand that the 
Spanish treasury was empty, assumed to under- 
take the enterprise for her own crown of Castile. 
Three small ships were fitted out, and on August 
3, 1492, Columbus set out on his first voyage. On 
October 12th land was sighted, and Columbus 
named it San Salvador. During the remaining 
three months of this first voyage, the islands of 
Conception, Cuba, and Hayti were discovered, 
and at Caracola on Hayti, a fort was constructed, 
out of the timber of the Santa Maria, the first 
structure built by Europeans in the New World. 
Columbus returned to Spain in March, 1493, and 
was hailed with applause. In September of the 
same year he set out on his second voyage, on 
which he discovered the Windward Group and 
the islands of Jamaica and Porto Rico. About 
this time he established the first colony in Hayti, 
and appointed his brother as governor. After an 
absence of nearly three years he returned to Spain 
in 1496, and found himself the victim of jealousies 
and suspicions which continued to follow him for 



INTRODUCTION 473 

the rest of his life. On the third voyage he dis- 
covered the island of Trinidad and the mainland 
of South America near the mouth of the Orinoco, 
in 1498. He then returned to Hayti and there 
found the colony in a state of disorganisation. 
While attempting to restore order, he was seized 
by Bobadilla, an agent of the Spanish government, 
and returned to Spain as a prisoner. After a 
time he was liberated, and set out on his fourth 
and last voyage, on which nothing of note was 
accomplished. He returned to Spain discouraged 
and died soon after. Columbus never received a 
reward for his discovery, and the newly discovered 
land was named after Amerigo Vespucci, whose 
only merit consists of the fact that he recognised 
that the discoveries were a new continent, and 
not a part of India. He published the first ac- 
count of the Western World, after having made 
two voyages, on which he reached the eastern 
coast of South America, but otherwise his dis- 
coveries were of no great importance. 

386. Vasco da Gama. — Vasco da Gama, the 
Portuguese navigator and discoverer, who accom- 
plished the doubling of the Cape of Good Hope, 
was born about a.d. 1460 and died in 1524. In 
i486 Bartholomew Diaz had reached the Cape of 
Good Hope, to which he gave the name of the 
Cape of Storms, but the king, in hopes of enriching 
his kingdom by the addition of Eastern possessions 
changed the name to that of Cape of Good Hope. 
In 1497 Vasco da Gama, with a fleet of four ships, 



474 MODERN HISTORY 

set out on a voyage to follow up the discoveries 
made. He rounded the Cape in safety and landed 
on the coast of Malabar in May, 1498. After his 
return a second voyage was undertaken by Al- 
varez Cabral (who, by sailing too far to the west, 
accidentally discovered Brazil), and before start- 
ing on his return voyage he established a factory 
at Calicut and left some of his men behind. These 
were murdered by the natives, and Vasco da Gama 
was sent to avenge the deed, in command of a 
powerful fleet, consisting of ten ships. The fleet 
sailed in 1502, and, reaching Calicut, Da Gama 
enacted such deeds of inhumanity and savagery 
that they have justly left a stain upon his char- 
acter. After his return to Portugal, he received 
great honours. For twenty years after his return 
he took no part in public affairs, but in 1524 he 
was sent to India as viceroy, and died there in the 
same year. 

387. Magellan. — Ferdinand Magellan was also a 
Portuguese. He was a man noted for his bold- 
ness and ability, and was determined to discover 
a south-west passage to Asia. When he laid his 
plans before the king of Portugal he was received 
coldly, and therefore went to Spain, and laid his 
plans before Charles V. A fleet of five ships was 
fitted out for him and he started on the voyage in 
1 5 19. He reached the coast of South America, 
and spent some months in searching for a strait 
westward, which would lead him to the ocean 
discovered by Balboa six years previously. He 



INTRODUCTION 475 

finally reached the eastern mouth of the strait 
which bears his name, and passing through it 
found himself in a calm open sea, to which he gave 
the name of Pacific. After months of suffering 
from want of provisions and scarcity of water, he 
reached the group of islands called the Ladrones, 
and then the Philippine Islands, where he was 
killed in battle with the natives. A new captain 
was chosen, and one ship of the fleet succeeded 
in reaching Spain in September, 1522. The 
circumnavigation . of the globe had thus become 
an actual accomplishment, and the theories of 
Strabo, Mandeville, and Columbus, as to the shape 
of the earth, were proved beyond doubt. 

388. Spain in America. — The principal colonies 
of the Spanish in the sixteenth century were the 
group of the West Indies, Mexico, and Peru. 
Cortez sailed from Spain in 15 19, and after landing 
at Vera Cruz, ordered the fleet that had brought 
him there to be destroyed. His entire force num- 
bered less than one thousand men. Mexico was 
then inhabited by various Indian tribes, and their 
government was a sort of confederation, although 
the Spanish gave it the name of "empire." The 
chief tribe were the Aztecs, whose king, Monte- 
zuma, was seized with an awe for the white 
conquerors who had come across the unknown 
waters, and opened to them the gates of the 
capital, Mexico. The greedy Spaniards soon be- 
came involved in various quarrels, however, and 
after the imprisonment of Montezuma there was 



476 MODERN HISTORY 

a general uprising, which Cortez was unable to 
subdue, and he was compelled to evacuate the 
city. His position was made even more dangerous 
by the arrival of a second Spanish force, under the 
Governor of Cuba, who had been sent against 
Cortez with orders to treat him as a rebel. Cortez 
boldly marched against him, and then returned 
to besiege Mexico, which fell into his hands after 
a siege of four weeks. Cortez then put himself at 
the head of the government of Mexico, in the 
name of the king. 

The conquest of Peru was accomplished by 
Francisco Pizarro in 1532. When he landed in 
Peru, he found the country in the midst of a 
civil war. In spite of the small force under his 
command (some accounts state it to have been 
only one hundred and sixty-eight foot-soldiers and 
sixty-seven horsemen), Pizarro proceeded with 
the utmost boldness and took the Inca Atahualpa 
prisoner. The Inca offered, as a ransom for his 
release, to fill his prison chamber with vessels of 
gold. Pizarro accepted the offer, and after the 
condition had been fulfilled, treacherously mur- 
dered the Inca, and seized the country. 



THE ERA OF THE REFORMATION 

(FROM THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA TO THE PEACE 
OF WESTPHALIA, IN 1 648) 

389. The Papal Dominion in the Sixteenth Century. 

— At the beginning of Modern History, Europe 
was almost completely inhabited by Christian 
peoples. The Mohammedans had lost their foot- 
hold in the West by the fall of Granada in 1492, 
but in the East the Balkan peninsula had been 
conquered by the Turks. The balance of Europe 
was divided into two parts, as to religion, con- 
stituted by the adherents of the Roman and the 
Greek Church. The Roman Church embraced 
all the Latin and Teutonic nations who had 
been Christianised by Rome. During the Middle 
Ages the Catholic Church had grown into a huge 
organisation, w r hile the Pope had, for a time, been 
able to exact obedience in all matters temporal 
as well as spiritual. But the excessive powers, 
taxes, and privileges of the Church, and the cor- 
rupt manners and practices of the clergy, led to 
the rejection of the papal claim to temporal 
sovereignty as early as in the fourteenth cent- 
ury, although the rulers of western Europe still 

477 



478 MODERN HISTORY 

continued to acknowledge the supreme authority 
of the Popes in matters of religion. 

390. The Causes of the Reformation. — The causes 
of the Reformation were numerous. Among 
others may be mentioned the Revival of Learning, 
which was greatly aided by the invention of 
printing. Through the agency of the press were 
disseminated the writings of men who had begun 
to doubt many of the doctrines and ceremonies of 
the Church, such as the devotion to the Virgin 
Mary, the invoking of the saints, the use of images, 
confession to a priest, and the nature of the ele- 
ments in the Eucharist. A second cause was the 
decay of the Church itself. The Papacy, under 
such men as Alexander VI., fell into licentiousness 
and murder, and sank into general disrepute 
throughout Europe. The persistent claim of the 
popes to the right of interference in govern- 
mental affairs may be accepted as another factor, 
but the most important cause, and the one which 
actually provoked the revolution, was the sale of 
indulgences. Indulgences were letters remitting 
punishment for sins to those who preferred to 
pay a sum of money instead of performing the 
penance imposed upon them by the Church. 

The indulgences were at first granted only to 
those who displayed sincere repentance, and thus 
were entirely honourable, but the temptation 
always existed to use them as a means of income. 
During the reign of Leo X. the Papacy was in 
urgent need of money, and the Pope had recourse 



THE ERA OF THE REFORMATION 479 

to the expedient of the sale of indulgences. He 
gave to the Archbishop of Magdeburg the power 
to dispense these in Germany, and the archbishop 
employed a Dominican friar, named John Tetzel, 
as his deputy in Saxony, in 1517. 

391. Martin Luther. — The traffic in the indul- 
gences aroused general indignation, and Martin 
Luther, an Augustine monk, had the courage of 
his convictions, and on October 31, 15 17, nailed 
to the door of the church at Wittenberg his ninety- 
five theses against indulgences. By means of the 
Press his bold words were in a short time scattered 
throughout Europe and raised a great echo of ap- 
plause. Pope Leo X. at first was inclined to treat 
the trouble in Germany as a squabble of monks, 
and sneered at it, but the growing audacity of 
Luther, who, in 1520, published his conviction 
that the Papacy itself was an usurpation for which 
there was no Biblical sanction, led him to excom- 
municate Luther as an heretic. Luther burned 
the bull as soon as it arrived, before the gate of 
Wittenberg, and by this act completely severed 
his connection with the Church of Rome. The 
insulted Pope now invoked the aid of Charles V., 
who summoned Luther before the Diet of Worms, 
in 1 52 1, to answer for his conduct. He was 
ordered to recant his errors, and he announced 
his readiness to do so, provided it could be proved 
by arguments from the Bible that he was wrong. 
He ended his vigorous defence with the words: 
"Here I stand, I cannot do otherwise. So help 



480 MODERN HISTORY 

me God, Amen." Thanks to a safe-conduct of 
the emperor he was allowed to depart in safety, 
but was followed by the Edict of Worms, which 
declared his life forfeited and his writings forbid- 
den. His friends became anxious for his safety, 
and on his return journey from Worms his friend 
Frederick the Wise, Elector of Saxony, caused 
him to be seized by masked horsemen, who se- 
cretly conveyed him to the castle of Wartburg, 
where he spent ten months in retirement. He 
was then called from the Wartburg by troubles 
caused by a new sect which had sprung up, the so- 
called Anabaptists. His powerful words brought 
the people to order again. The revolutionary 
tendencies aroused by Luther were now spreading 
like wildfire. A rising of the knights, under 
Ulrich von Hutten, was hardly suppressed when 
the Peasants' Revolt broke out, in 1525, but it was 
also crushed in the same year. The doctrines of 
Luther spread rapidly, and even before his death, 
which occurred in 1546, Protestantism had gained 
a foothold in most of the countries of western 
Europe. 

The causes that checked the progress of the 
Reformation were the divisions among the Pro- 
testants, the Catholic counter-reforms, the Inqui- 
sition, and the rise of the Order of the Jesuits. 

392. Zwingli and Calvin. — In 15 18 Ulrich Zwingli, 
a priest of the Canton of Glarus, in Switzerland, 
published a protest against the indulgences. He 
moved to Zurich, and soon gathered around him- 



THE ERA OF THE REFORMATION 48 1 

self a powerful reform party. He then made 
an attempt to effect a union between himself and 
Luther, but Luther rejected the offer, because of 
a difference of opinion on the doctrine of the 
Lord's Supper. The inhabitants of the so-called 
Forest Cantons remained Catholic, and a war 
ensued between the two factions, and the Cath- 
olic party won a victory at Cappel, in 1531, 
Zwingli being killed in this battle. A short 
time after these events there arose in the French 
part of Switzerland another great leader, John 
Calvin, who made the city of Geneva famous as 
the hearth of the new Protestant worship. The 
fame of Calvin spread rapidly throughout Europe 
and he gained many followers, but the influence 
of these divisions was disastrous for the progress 
of the Reformation, as they afforded the Catholics 
a strong argument against the movement. 

At this time the Catholics instituted a counter- 
reform, and at the celebrated Council of Trent, 
1 5 45-1 5 63, a clear and authoritative re-statement 
of the Catholic faith was accomplished. With the 
accession of Paul IV. to the Papacy began a long 
series of popes who corrected many of the existing 
abuses, maintaining a vigorous moral code, and 
who devoted themselves eagerly to ecclesiastical 
interests. 

393. The Inquisition. — The Inquisition at this 
time assumed new vigour, and heretics were 
sternly dealt with, the usual punishment meted 
out to obstinate heretics being confiscation of 



482 MODERN HISTORY 

property and death, generally by burning at 
the stake, the sentence being carried out by the 
civil authorities. The Inquisition was an im- 
portant factor in checking the progress of the 
Reformation. 

In the counter-reformation the order of the 
Jesuits, founded in 1534 by Ignatius Loyola, a 
Spanish nobleman, played an important role. 
By the system of instruction introduced by 
Loyola, the candidates of the order were so 
trained that they became obedient tools in the 
hands of their master. The work of the Jesuits, 
especially in high places, was very successful, and 
one of their greatest triumphs was the return to 
the Catholic faith of the princes of the electoral 
house of Saxony, which had been the hotbed of 
the Reformation. The outcome of the struggle 
was the separation of the Teutonic nations from 
the Roman Church, while the Roman nations, 
Italy, France, Spain, and Celtic Ireland, remained 
loyal to Rome. 

A — Spain 

394. Ascendency of Spain under Charles V. — 
Charles V., the son of Philip the Handsome, Arch- 
duke of Austria, and of Joanna, the daughter of 
Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain, inherited the 
crowns of Spain and Naples after the death of his 
grandfather Ferdinand, together with the posses- 
sions in the New World, in 15 16. In 1519, he in- 



THE ERA OF THE REFORMATION 483 

herited the duchy of Austria and its dependencies, 
and in the same year was elected sovereign of the 
Holy Roman Empire by the Electors of Germany. 
As king of Spain he had borne the title. of Charles 
I. (Don Carlos I. of Spain), as emperor of the 
Holy Roman Empire he became known as Charles 
V. " 

There were four wars between Charles V. and 
France. The cause of these was the jealousy of 
the French king because of the conferring of the 
imperial dignity upon Charles. 

The first war ended with the -defeat of the 
French army at Pavia in Italy, a.d. 1525, and 
Francis himself was made prisoner. "All is lost 
save honour," was the message he sent to his 
mother at Paris. In 1526 a peace was effected, by 
which France ceded all claims in Italy, as well as 
Burgundy, and by which the suzerainty over 
Artois passed to Charles. 

As soon as Francis regained his liberty he re- 
newed the war, the most noteworthy incident of 
the second war being the sack of Rome by the 
soldiery of Charles, after the death of the Duke of 
Bourbon, a traitorous French nobleman, who had 
been put at the head of the troops of Charles and 
sent against the Pope to punish him for his. sup- 
port of the French king. In 1529 the peace of 
Cambray was concluded. The striking feature of 
the third war was the alliance of the French king 
with Solyman the Magnificent, the Turkish sultan. 
This was an unprecedented spectacle and shocked 



484 MODERN HISTORY 

the entire Christian world. The third war was 
concluded by the peace of Nice in 1538. The 
fourth war, and last, left the possessions of the 
rivals about the same as they had been before 
the beginning of the struggle, and by the peace 
of Crespy, in 1544, Charles gave up his claim 
upon Burgundy. 

After having been driven back from Vienna, in 
1529, the Turkish sultan, Solyman the Magnifi- 
cent, marched against Germany with a large army, 
but was met by the combined forces of the Pro- 
testants and Catholics, and retired into Hungary 
in 1 5 3 2 , Charles then turned his attention against 
the possessions of the Turks in the Mediterranean, 
and led a large fleet and army against Tunis, 
which was then in the hands of an Algerian pirate, 
Barbarossa. Tunis was captured and Charles set 
free 20,000 Christian captives, for which act he 
received great applause throughout Europe. A 
second expedition, this time against Algiers, 
which after the fall of Tunis had been made the 
stronghold of the Moslems, was not successful, 
and Charles effected his retreat only after having 
sustained very heavy losses. 

After the peace of Crespy, Charles resolved to 
eradicate heresy in Germany by force, his offers 
for an amicable settlement having been rejected 
by the Protestants. The German princes had 
formed the so-called League of Schmalkalden, and 
the first war of religion broke out in Germany in 
the year of Luther's death, 1546. The Protestant 



THE ERA OF THE REFORMATION 485 

forces lacked able leadership and were defeated at 
the battle of Muhlbach, in 1547, Charles having 
been aided by the traitor Maurice of Saxony. 
Maurice, after having received the price of his 
treachery, the electorate of Saxony, went back to 
his co-religionists, and Germany rose again in 
1552. Charles found himself helpless and barely 
escaped capture. At the Diet of Augsburg, in 
1555, the so-called religious peace of Augsburg 
was ratified by the emperor, and the Protestants 
received legal recognition as an independent 
ecclesiastical establishment. 

After the abdication of Charles V., in 1556, his 
son Philip received the crown of Spain, the colo- 
nies, Naples, Milan, and the Netherlands, and his 
brother Ferdinand received the Austrian lands 
and therewith the imperial crown. 

395. Philip II. — Philip II. was a champion of 
the Catholic faith. He relentlessly persecuted the 
Protestants with the terrors of the Inquisition 
and began the war against the Protestants of the 
North. The Netherlands were the first to revolt, 
and Philip at once undertook the task of subduing 
the revolution. Although he applied barbarous 
measures, he was unable to pacify the Nether- 
lands, and gradually the sympathies of the French, 
German, and English Protestants were aroused in 
favour of the Dutch, so that within a short time 
Philip saw himself involved in a war with the 
French Huguenots under Henry of Navarre, and 
with Elizabeth of England. 



486 MODERN HISTORY 

The internal rule of Philip was as unsuccessful 
as his career as a champion of Catholicism. He 
adopted the most cruel measures against the 
Moors, whom he expelled, thus losing a multitude 
of industrious and worthy subjects. 

The Inquisition which he employed against 
them and against the Jews, because of their faith, 
crushed the energy of his subjects, and the power 
of Spain began to decline, because of the unwise 
and bigoted policy of Philip and his successors. 
Philip's treatment of the Netherlands was no less 
cruel, and resulted in the emigration of many 
thousand artisans into England. At last the 
Netherlands were driven into desperate revolt. 

396. The Battle of Lepanto. — Austria, Italy, and 
Spain suffered much from the raids and conquests 
of the Turks, who were gradually being pushed 
across Transylvania and Hungary towards Ger- 
many. Finally an alliance was formed by the 
Pope, Venice, and Spain, in 1571, and in the same 
year a powerful fleet of the allies met the Turks 
off Lepanto, in Greece. In this memorable battle, 
in which 600 ships and 200,000 men took part, 
the Turkish fleet was almost totally destroyed by 
the allied forces, which were under the command 
of the half-brother of Philip, Don Juan d 'Austria. 
Hardly more than thirty Turkish vessels escaped, 
and 12,000 Christian rowers were freed from 
slavery. This battle brought no immediate bene- 
fits to Christendom, but from this date may 
be reckoned the gradual decline of Mohammedan 



THE ERA OF THE REFORMATION 487 

power in Europe, although for more than a century 
the Turks remained in a threatening attitude. 

397. Decline of the Power of Spain. — With the 
death of Philip II., in 1598, commenced the steady 
decline of the Spanish nation. The expulsion of 
the Moors, which had been inaugurated under 
Philip II., was finally accomplished under his suc- 
cessor, Philip III., and thus the country received 
a blow from which it never recovered. In 1609, 
the Netherlands achieved their independence, and 
with this province Spain lost one of her most 
valuable possessions and rapidly sank to the 
position of a third- or fourth-rate power. How- 
ever, although the policy of the kings was largely 
responsible, the Spanish character must also be 
taken into account, and the native intolerance, 
which cut off Spain from all new ideas, and the in- 
dolence of the Spaniards, must be reckoned as 
potent influences that made for the eventual decay 
of the Spanish power. 

B — England 

398. The Tudors and the English Reformation. 

— Although England hitherto had been of com- 
paratively small importance, now comes the 
period when she begins to develop into one of the 
great world-powers. After England recovered 
from the darkening and devastating effects of her 
civil strifes, she began to feel the throes of move- 
ments that gave to man a new heaven and a new 



488 MODERN HISTORY 

earth, and entered upon a period of greatness to 
be compared with that of Athens after the Persian 
wars, and that of Rome after the overthrow of 
Carthage. 

399. England's Preparation for the Reformation. 
— In England the Reformation was the out- 
come of a revolt against Rome, which was caused 
by a quarrel of Henry VIII. with the Pope, 
Clement VII., on account of Henry's desire to be 
divorced from his wife Catherine. England was 
separated violently from the ecclesiastical empire 
of Rome, and the king of England became also 
the head of the Church. However, at first the 
creed and form of worship remained unchanged, 
and the change in creed and ritual was gradual, 
being effected during the reign of Edward VI. 
Thus the movement can be designated as a revolt 
with a reform following. 

400. The Benevolences and " Morton's Fork." — 
The Magna Charta forbade the king to impose 
taxes without the consent of Parliament. Henry 
VII. did not like to convene Parliament, however, 
for various reasons, one among them being his 
questionable title to the throne, so he adopted the 
so-called Benevolences as a means of wringing 
money from his wealthy subjects. They were 
simply gifts extracted from the rich, generally 
produced with the application of strong moral 
pressure, while the poor were relieved from taxes, 
mostly because of the king's desire to secure the 
good- wijl of the masses. " Morton's Fork " was the 



THE ERA OF THE REFORM A TION 489 

name given the diplomatic manner in which Morton, 
the favourite minister of Henry VII., managed to 
"collect" the Benevolences. Morton represented 
to those who were maintaining expensive estab- 
lishments, that it was self-evident that they were 
in a position to make a generous donation to their 
sovereign ; while to those who were niggardly and 
close he said that their economy certainly must 
have made them able to spare a goodly sum for 
the king. 

401. King Henry VIII. — Henry VII., the first 
Tudor monarch, died in 1509, and was succeeded 
by his son, Henry VIII., who was then under 
twenty years of age. He was a reputed friend of 
the Humanists, and they rejoiced greatly at his 
accession to the throne. However, their joy was 
not of long duration. Henry abandoned the 
policy of peace and joined Spain and the Pope in 
the so-called Holy League, which was directed 
against France, but failed to gain any decisive 
results. In 15 17 he defended the Pope against 
Luther, and the Pope conferred upon him the 
title "Defender of the Faith." His subsequent 
separation from Rome was largely due to the 
peculiar circumstances of his first marriage. His 
father, Henry VII., had sought to associate him- 
self with Spain, in order to gain the advantage 
over France, and he therefore came to an under- 
standing with Ferdinand of Spain in regard to a 
matrimonial alliance. In consequence of this ar- 
rangement, Arthur, the Prince of Wales, was 



490 MODERN HISTORY 

married to Catherine, the daughter of Ferdinand 
and Isabella. Arthur died a short time after the 
nuptials, and Henry wished to continue the alli- 
ance, so he secured a special dispensation whereby 
the Church law, which prohibited a man to marry 
the widow of his brother, was annulled in this 
case, and in 1 509, upon his accession to the throne, 
Henry VIII. was married to Catherine. They had 
one child, a daughter, and Henry shortly ceased to 
love his wife, partly because of his attachment to 
her young and charming maid of honour, Anne 
Boleyn, partly because he was desirous of securing 
the succession to a son, his daughter Mary being 
a sickly child. The failure of the Pope to grant 
the divorce Henry was seeking, led to the separa- 
tion of England from Rome, and after he had him- 
self appointed the head of the Church of England, 
Henry was easily able to get the decree of divorce 
against his wife, and married Anne Boleyn. 

402. Wolsey and Cromwell. — The favourite ad- 
viser of Henry VIII. in the first part of his reign 
was Thomas Wolsey (1 47 1-1 5 30) . Wolsey was of 
low descent, but, having joined the clergy, rose 
rapidly because of his marked talents, and finally 
became Archbishop of York and Lord Chancellor. 
Although a very able man, Wolsey was overfond 
of a display of power, and revelled in the posses- 
sion of palaces, trains of servants, and sumptu- 
ous feasts, and his ambition and vanity are said 
to have exceeded his intelligence and patriotism. 
When the question of the divorce of the king was 



THE ERA OF THE REFORMATION 49 1 

' to be decided, Wolsey accepted the appointment 
as papal legate, and together with Campeggio, the 
legate from Italy, carried on a busy investigation 
for a year or more, without coming to any conclu- 
sion. Henry's patience then became exhausted 
and Wolsey 's fall was the consequence. He was 
banished from the Court, and was eventually ar- 
rested on a charge of high treason. While on his 
way to London, Wolsey was stricken with a fatal 
illness, and death saved him from imprisonment. 

Thomas Cromwell, a former secretary of Wolsey 
and a man of rude energy, now succeeded to the 
place from which Wolsey had fallen. Cromwell, 
the son of a blacksmith, was in 1531 appointed 
privy councillor to the king, and in 1533 was made 
chancellor. To his influence may be charged the 
repudiation of the Pope by the king, and the pass- 
ing of the Act of Supremacy, by which the king 
was declared the supreme head of the Church of 
England. In 1536 he instituted the suppression 
of the monasteries, and in 1540 was created Earl 
of Essex. In 1539 he negotiated the marriage of 
Henry VIII. with Anne of Cleves, the king's 
fourth wife, as his second wife, Anne Boleyn, had 
been beheaded because of alleged unfaithful- 
ness, and his third, Jane Seymour, had died after 
one year of questionable marital bliss. Anne of 
Cleves also failed to suit the king, who became 
enamoured of Catherine Howard, and he divorced 
Anne, ostensibly on the charge that she had pre- 
viously been betrothed, and married Catherine, 



492 MODERN HISTORY 

only to have her executed on account of a love 
affair. Cromwell drew upon himself the king's 
displeasure by the part he had taken in the nego- 
tiations for the union between Henry and Anne 
of Cleves, and this circumstance hastened Crom- 
well's downfall. He was accused of treason and 
beheaded. 

403. Developments in Church Government. — After 
the fall of Wolsey, Cromwell persuaded the king 
to openly repudiate the Pope, to make himself 
head of the English Church, and to refer the 
matter of his divorce to an ecclesiastical court 
dependent upon himself. The king followed the 
advice, and the first step taken was the stopping 
of the annual payments to the Pope. Then a 
creature of the king, Cranmer, was appointed 
Archbishop of Canterbury, and to him was 
referred the matter of the king's divorce. Cran- 
mer, of course, at once issued the decree, and 
Henry crowned Anne Boleyn as queen. In 1534 
the Parliament passed the Act of Supremacy by 
which Henry was declared the supreme head of 
the English Church. The enactments of this 
year were made the test of loyalty to the king, 
and whoever pronounced a doubt about the 
righteousness of the proceedings or failed to 
recognise Henry as the head of the Church in 
place of the Pope, was liable to a traitor's death. 
Thomas Moore, once Henry's friend and chan- 
cellor, was among the victims who paid with their 
lives for their unwillingness to give to Henry the 



THE ERA OF THE REFORMATION 493 

recognition required. Although the faith and 
ritual remained the same, some innovations were 
introduced, such as the placing of the English 
Bible in all churches. The doctrines concerning 
purgatory, indulgences, and masses for the dead 
were condemned, pilgrimages and worship of 
images were prohibited, and all images were or- 
dered destroyed. The most radical measure was 
the suppression of the monasteries, which the 
king sanctioned upon the advice of Cromwell. 
The wealth of the monasteries, which at this time 
probably included one-fifth of the lands of the 
country, was confiscated and became the prop- 
erty of the king. A part of it was used for the 
establishment of new churches and for new 
schools, but the greatest part was distributed 
among the nobility to attach them to his party. 
A revolt broke out in 1536 because of the changes 
made, and the king ordered the Parliament in 
1539 to pass an act, referred to as the Six Articles, 
commonly known as the " Whip with Six Cords." 
The Six Articles were intended as a confession of 
faith of the Church which Henry was pleased to 
call orthodox. It was half-way between Catholic 
and Protestant, and it upheld celibacy of the 
clergy, confession, and transubstantiation. A 
persecution was now instituted which affected 
Catholics and Protestants alike, and difference of 
opinion from the Six Articles was made punish- 
able with death. 

404. Edward VI. and Mary. — Edward VI. was 



494 MODERN H1SU0RY 

the son of Henry VIII. by his third queen, Jane 
Seymour, and succeeded to the throne under the 
regency of his uncle, the Duke of Somerset. In 
1550 the Duke of Northumberland became re- 
gent, the king then being only thirteen years of 
age, and when, in 1553, Northumberland perceived 
that the king was slowly dying, he persuaded him 
to exclude his sisters, Mary and Elizabeth, from 
the succession, and to bestow the crown upon 
Lady Jane Grey, to whom the duke had married 
one of his sons. Edward VI. died soon afterward. 
During his reign occurred the publication of the 
Forty-two Articles of Religion and the introduc- 
tion of the Book of Common Prayer. The Forty- 
two Articles were reduced under Elizabeth to 
thirty-nine, and were somewhat tempered in tone, 
but they still remain, with the Prayer Book, the 
two main pillars upon which rests the Church of 
England. 

Mary was the child of Henry VIII. and Cathe- 
rine of Aragon. After the death of Edward VI., 
the Duke of Northumberland proclaimed Lady 
Jane Grey queen, but Mary soon overcame the op- 
position and both the Duke of Northumberland 
and Lady Jane Grey were beheaded. Mary pur- 
sued an ultra-Catholic policy during her reign. 
She abolished all the acts that had been voted 
under Edward VI. ; the married clergymen were 
expelled, and after the Act of Supremacy had 
been revoked by Parliament in 1554, the English 
nation was received back into the obedience of 



THE ERA OF THE REFORMATION 495 

the Papal See. Mary sought an alliance with 
Catholic Spain and married Philip, the son and 
heir of Charles V. This act, combined with the 
religious persecutions of the Protestants, under- 
mined her popularity. About two or three hun- 
dred persons suffered death during her reign on 
account of their religion, among them Bishops 
Latimer and Ridley and the Archbishop of Can- 
terbury, Cranmer. From this period of the 
Protestant martyrs dates the terrible title given 
to Mary by posterity — "Bloody Mary." Mary 
was drawn by her Spanish husband into war with 
France, and lost the last English possession on 
the continent, Calais, in 1558. Her death oc- 
curred in the same year. 

405. Elizabeth. — Elizabeth, the daughter of 
Henry VIII. and Anne Boleyn, reigned from 1558 
until 1603. She possessed an inflexible will, great 
courage, and ' exceptional intelligence, but was 
devoid of all graces of womanhood, being vain to 
excess, treacherous, cruel, unscrupulous, frivolous, 
and lukewarm in matters of religion. She was 
well educated, could read Latin and Greek, and 
was acquainted, with the languages and litera- 
tures of the continent. Although she seemed 
luxurious and pleasure-loving, she lived simply 
and frugally, and from the voluptuous coquette 
when not engaged with matters of state, she was 
transformed into a cool and sagacious politician 
when attending the deliberations of her council- 
board. She was subject to furious outbursts of 



496 MODERN HISTORY 

anger, and sometimes would swear at her min- 
isters in most uncouth language. It was her de- 
light to mystify diplomats, and deception and 
falsehood were her usual weapons, seeming to 
her only an intellectual means of meeting a diffi- 
culty, and she met the exposure of her lies with 
the same indifference with which she had uttered 
them. Notwithstanding all her faults, her im- 
morality, and lack of religious feeling, she was 
the ideal of England, and her reign was very suc- 
cessful, partly because of her indifference to re- 
ligion, which prevented her continuing the radical 
policy pursued by her predecessors. 

Elizabeth was very successful in the selection 
of her advisers and ministers, and her sagacity 
was displayed to best advantage in her assembling 
in the Privy Council the best political talent the 
country afforded. The most famous of her min- 
isters was William Cecil, who was at the head of 
the Council for forty years. Other prominent 
ministers were the son of Cecil, Robert, Sir 
Nicholas Bacon, and Sir Francis Walsingham. 

Although Elizabeth always consulted her Privy 
Council in affairs of the state, she never granted 
any political influence to Parliament, and the 
sovereignty in England was practically concen- 
trated in her hands. The first question of her 
reign was the question of the Reformation. 
Elizabeth realised that the course of Edward, 
who had pursued a radical Protestant policy, and 
the course of her immediate predecessor, Mary, 



The era of the reformation 49? 

who had been a radical Catholic, were failures 
because of their extremes, and she therefore 
wisely decided to return to the moderate policy 
of her father, Henry VIII. In 1559 Parliament 
passed the Acts of Supremacy and Uniformity, by 
which the independence of England from Rome 
was again declared and Elizabeth made the 
highest spiritual authority, and the clergy were 
forbidden to depart from the beliefs and service 
which were laid down in the new version of the 
Common Prayer and in the Forty-two Articles of 
Religion, which soon were reduced to thirty-nine. 

The important events of her reign of forty-five 
years were the conclusion of a treaty with France 
in 1564, by which Elizabeth relinquished her 
claim to Calais in consideration of the payment of 
220,000 crowns; in 1587 she signed the death- 
warrant of Mary, Queen of Scots, who in 1568 had 
taken refuge in England, after having been driven 
from Scotland by a rebellion of her subjects ; and 
in 1588 the English fleet defeated the Spanish 
Armada in the English Channel, and thereby 
prevented an invasion of England. 

406. Mary Stuart. — Mary Stuart became Queen 
of Scotland after the death of James V., her father, 
in 1542. She was a child then, having been born 
a few days previous to the death of her father. 
Her mother, Mary of Guise, was appointed re- 
gent, and Mary was sent to France to be educated. 
In 1558 she was married to the Dauphin, after- 
wards Francis II.; in 1560 Francis II. died, and 



498 MODERN HISTORY 

Mary returned to Scotland in 1 561. In Scotland 
in the meantime the Presbyterian Kirk had been 
established, and Mary, being a Catholic, failed to 
gain the confidence of her subjects. In 1565 she 
married her cousin, Lord Darnley, who was a 
proud and dissolute character. After his marriage 
to the queen he became the tool of the party op- 
posed to Mary, and when she refused to grant him 
the crown matrimonial, he was easily persuaded 
by the nobles that this was due to the influence 
of one of Mary's foreign secretaries, David Rizzio, 
who was a favourite of the queen. With some 
followers he wounded Rizzio in the queen's pre- 
sence, and then murdered him at Mary's door, in 
1565. In 1567 Lord Darnley was found dead 
under the ruins of his house near Edinburgh. 
The Earl of Bothwell was accused of having 
committed the foul deed, and, as he was known 
to be in love with the queen, she was suspected 
of complicity. After a farcical trial of Bothwell 
she married him. The Scots revolted, and in the 
year 1568 Mary sought refuge in England, and 
became the prisoner of Elizabeth. In 1586 she 
was tried on the charge of conspiring against the 
life of Elizabeth, was found guilty, and was be- 
headed in February, 1587. 

407. The Spanish Armada. — Before her death 
Mary Stuart had bequeathed her rights to the 
English crown to Philip II. of Spain. Philip at 
once began preparations for a campaign against 
I Elizabeth, to avenge the death of Mary and to 



THE ERA OF THE REFORMATION 499 

deal a fatal blow to the Reformation by crushing 
the Protestants in England. He gathered a big 
fleet, called the Invincible Armada, and after hav- 
ing received the blessing of the Pope, the fleet 
sailed toward the English coast. The plans were 
that the Armada should first sail to the Nether- 
lands and there receive the Duke of Parma, who 
was to act as the commander-in-chief. In the 
meantime all differences of religion had been for- 
gotten in England and preparations were made to 
meet the invaders. A fleet was assembled, out- 
numbering the Armada, although the ships were 
inferior in size, but this difference in bulk was 
made up by the excellent equipment and the 
perfect seamanship of the English. In July, 1588, 
the Spanish fleet appeared off the west coast of 
England. The English attacked the rear and 
flank, and the Spaniards suffered such losses and 
their vessels were damaged to such an extent 
that the Armada was compelled to retreat to 
Calais for repairs. The English blocked the 
Channel, and the Armada made an attempt to 
escape by sailing northward around the British 
Isles. However, the fleet was overtaken by the 
equinoctial storms, and many of the Spanish ships 
were shattered upon the rocks. Only one-third 
of the vessels returned to Spain, and England was 
saved from a great danger. 

408. Davis, Frobisher, and Drake. — After the 
crippling of the naval power of Spain England 
became aware that her true realm was the sea. 



500 MODERN HISTORY 

Great sailors, like Davis, Frobisher, and Sir 
Francis Drake, made voyages to the remotest 
lands, and many are the stories of their adven- 
tures and exploits. Drake was half explorer, 
half pirate, whose greatest delight was in fighting 
the Spaniards on the high seas, and in plundering 
the colonies of Spain. He accomplished the cir- 
cumnavigation of the globe, and after his return 
was knighted by the queen. While searching for 
a north-west passage to the East Indies, Frobisher 
and Davis discovered the straits which bear 
their respective names. The English established 
lucrative commercial relations with various coun- 
tries of the world, supplanting the Spanish, who 
hitherto had been allowed the monopoly of the 
sea, and even before the death of Elizabeth Eng- 
land had entered fairly upon the path of oceanic 
expansion. 

409. Literature of Elizabeth's Time. — The growth 
and expansion of England under the reign of 
Elizabeth exercised a great influence upon the 
intellectual life of the nation, as with the increase 
of commerce came the increase in industry and 
wealth, and the more elevated plane of living, 
which showed itself in greater luxury of dress 
and in a patronage of the theatre and the arts. 
These national and local influences gave a great 
impetus to literature, which was further inspired 
by the restlessness and curiosity which character- 
ised the age. The sphere of human interest was 
widened by the discoveries, and the influence of 



THE ERA OF THE REFORMATION 501 

the new knowledge about the various races of the 
world, their customs, religions, and even their in- 
stincts, led to a closer study of human character, 
which is shown in the popularity of the drama, 
and in the works of Bacon, Spenser, Greene, 
Marlowe, Shakespeare, Sidney, and Hooker. 

C — The Revolt of the Netherlands 

410. Rise of the Dutch Republic. — With the 
above topic two others are closely connected, 
namely the religious wars in France and the 
Thirty Years' War in Germany, for they un- 
questionably were the outgrowth of the struggle 
between the Protestant and papal parties. They 
all lead to a forward step — either directly or in- 
directly — in the progress towards liberty of the 
individual. 

411. Situation and Social Conditions in the Nether- 
lands. — The countries designated at the present 
day as Belgium and Holland were the Nether- 
lands, or "Low Countries" of old. A good part 
of the land is below the level of the sea, and 
has been won from it after a long struggle by 
means of the dykes and canals, a great system 
of the latter having also been devised to carry 
off the periodical overflow of the Rhine, the 
Meuse, and the Scheldt. The great number of 
these waterways has in a large measure increased 
the fertility of the soil, and as they furnish the 
means for cheap transportation, they have proved 



5<D2 MODERN HISTORY 

of immense importance in the development of 
the country. 

The Netherlands are peopled by two races, the 
Celts and the Teutons. The former are in the 
minority, speak a French dialect, and inhabit 
what is now known as Belgium, especially the 
southern portion, while the Teutons inhabit the 
northern part of Belgium, and Holland. They 
are divided into the Flemish and the Dutch, 
speaking two slightly different German dialects. 

The original inhabitants of the Netherlands 
were farmers, herdsmen, and fishermen. Com- 
merce and industry gradually gained a foothold 
and caused the building of cities, and these in 
course of time wrung charters from their feudal 
lords and acquired a comparative freedom, which, 
aided by the favourable situation for a world- 
wide commerce, made the cities of the Nether- 
lands assume positions of the greatest importance 
among the cities of the North. Antwerp, Bruges, 
Ghent, Haarlem, and many other cities aided, by 
the extension of commerce and industry, in the 
elevation of the Netherlands, in point of material 
prosperity and of intellectual culture, to a posi- 
tion of first rank in northern Europe. 

The reign of Charles V., while very successful 
in regard to the development of the country in 
nearly every department of civilisation, was a 
conspicuous failure so far as his position towards 
the Protestants in the Netherlands was concerned. 
He met the adherents of Luther with a relentless 



THE ERA OF THE REFORM A T10N 503 

hostility and employed the fiercest methods in 
his attempts to exterminate the heresy, but the 
staunchness in death of the Protestant martyrs 
did more towards the permanent establishment of 
the faith than the most effective propaganda of 
the preachers could have done. Confiscations 
of property, imprisonments, and burning at the 
stake became of daily occurrence, but although 
the number of victims of the persecutions of 
Charles is estimated at 50,000, the result was only 
a swelling of the ranks of the Protestants. Not- 
withstanding the ravages of the Inquisition, 
which was established in the Netherlands by 
Charles V., there was no important outbreak 
against his policy during his lifetime, but the 
seed was no doubt introduced for the revolt which 
finally broke out in 1566. 

Philip II., the son of Charles V., succeeded him 
in 1555. He remained for four years in the 
Netherlands, and in 1559 left for Spain, never to 
return. Before leaving, he intrusted the govern- 
ment of the Netherlands to his half-sister, Mar- 
garet, the Duchess of Parma. Her policy caused 
discontent among the nobles, who found them- 
selves supplanted by a few upstart courtiers and 
servile favourites, and the discontent was aug- 
mented by the persecutions of the Inquisition. 
In 1565 the nobles formed a league among them- 
selves and presented to the regent a statement of 
their grievances, demanding that it be forwarded 
to the king. Margaret, thoroughly frightened by 



504 MODERN HISTORY 

the demonstration, promised to do so, whereupon 
one of her courtiers exclaimed: " Madam, are you 
afraid of a pack of beggars?" When the ex- 
pression was carried to the nobles, who were 
assembled at a banquet, one of their number im- 
mediately suspended a beggar's wallet from his 
neck, and filling a wooden bowl with wine, pro- 
posed the toast: "Long live the beggars." The 
name ' ' les Gueux ' ' became attached to them as 
the designation of their party throughout the long 
struggle which broke out immediately after with 
the Spanish power. The war was concluded by 
the treaty of 1609, which, although officially 
termed a truce for twelve years, was virtually an 
acknowledgment of the independence of the 
United Provinces of the Netherlands by Spain. 
After the peace of Westphalia, 1648, the inde- 
pendence of the Dutch Republic was officially 
recognised. 

The bold act of the "beggars" resulted in the 
outbreak of the Iconoclasts (image-breakers) , who 
invaded the Catholic churches, broke the pictured 
windows and saintly images, and shattered the 
crosses and altars into fragments, thus causing the 
ruin of many priceless art treasures. Their heed- 
less destruction has been as sincerely mourned by 
lovers of the beautiful, as the burning of the rolls 
of the Alexandrian Library has been lamented by 
the lovers of learning. After some months the 
revolt was repressed, but Philip, instead of aiding 
Margaret to confirm the established order, planned 



THE ERA OF THE REFORM A T/OAT 505 

a campaign of vengeance, and assembled an army 
for the punishment of the Netherlands, putting at 
its head the Duke of Alva, one of his ablest gen- 
erals. Just before his arrival in the Netherlands 
Prince William of Orange crossed the border into 
Germany, where he at once began preparations 
to oppose the army of the king of Spain. William 
of Orange, who is justly called "the founder of 
Dutch liberties," was compelled to carry on the 
struggle almost single-handed, with hardly the 
support of one-half of the people of the Nether- 
lands, but although he suffered defeat after 
defeat, he remained firm in his resolution, and 
became the hero and martyr of his country. He 
turned all his available possessions into money, 
and raised and equipped an army of 30,000 men 
almost wholly at his own expense. His project 
was equivalent to a declaration of war against 
Philip, and although the great difference in the 
strength of the two parties that were soon to en- 
gage in a long and fierce struggle seemed to decide 
the result in advance, the smaller and weaker 
nation issued from the contest as victor, after an 
honourable and dramatic war lasting eighty years 
(1568-1648). 

412. William the Silent. — The first campaign re- 
sulted in the defeat of the brother of William of 
Orange, and then William himself was defeated 
and his army scattered, because the people had 
failed to rise as he had expected. The harsh 
measures adopted by the Duke of Alva, and the 



506 MODERN HISTORY 

hope of deliverance which the campaign had for 
a moment excited in the people, soon changed 
the attitude of the populace, who, once awakened 
from the torpor of indifference, began to resent 
the oppressions of the Spaniards. An attempt of 
Alva to fill his depleted treasury by a system of 
outrageous extortion, imposing a tax of ten per 
cent, upon all commercial transactions, was an- 
swered by the citizens simply by the closing of 
their shops and the total cessation of business. 
The Dutch freebooters, known as the "beggars of 
the sea," began to gain advantages over the 
Spaniards, and their influence caused the driving 
out of the Spaniards from a score of towns, thus 
limiting the power of Alva to Brussels and the 
South. Holland elected William the Silent its 
" Stadtholder, " and from this time became the 
centre of the Dutch resistance. Alva now en- 
tered upon a campaign with many atrocities 
and massacres, but he was incapable of dealing 
with the situation and demanded to be recalled. 
Requesens, a sensible and moderate man, was 
appointed in his place in 1573. The most notable 
event of his term of command was the siege of 
Leyden. When the city seemed lost for failure of 
getting provisions, William had recourse to the 
expedient of cutting the dykes and letting the sea 
in upon the land. The ships of the "beggars of 
the sea" followed, and with the aid of favourable 
winds succeeded in reaching the city, the waters 
compelling the Spaniards to raise the siege. In 



THE ERA OF THE REFORMATION 507 

1576 Requesens died. The Spanish soldiers rose 
in revolt because of their not having received 
their pay, and marched through the land pillaging 
city after city, Antwerp among them, and paying 
themselves from the spoils. The massacre of the 
inhabitants caused the outbreak to be called the 
" Spanish Fury." The result of the outrages was 
the Pacification of Ghent, in 1576, thus being 
called the alliance between the North and South, 
the Teutons and Celts, Protestants and Catholics, 
which proclaimed their common interests, and 
the United Netherlands now prepared to make 
a common stand against their oppressor. When 
Don Juan d 'Austria, the hero of Lepanto, was 
appointed as successor to Requesens, the Nether- 
lands were prepared to resist the Spaniards, and 
Don Juan had to enter the country in disguise. 
However, by treachery he succeeded in gaining a 
base of operation and defeated the revolutionary 
forces at Gemblou. He died shortly after, and 
was succeeded by another general of renown, 
Prince Alexander of Parma. The war went on, 
with varying successes, but dissatisfaction arose 
among the Netherlanders, and the result was 
the separation of the northern and southern pro- 
vinces. William, unable to unite all the states, 
endeavoured to effect a confederation of the north- 
ern states, and succeeded in establishing the Seven 
United Provinces of the Netherlands, by the treaty 
of Utrecht, 1579, which were the foundation of 
the Dutch Republic. Philip of Spain, who saw 



508 MODERN HISTORY 

that William was the backbone of the resist- 
ance, published a ban against him, declared him 
an outlaw, his life forfeited, and offered 25,000 
gold crowns and a patent of nobility to any one 
who would kill him. William's answer was the 
famous "Apology," in which he justified his 
course and arraigned tyranny in the most stinging 
words. This document was scattered broadcast 
over Europe. The offer of blood-money had its 
effect, and William was murdered in 1584 by 
Balthasar Gerard. After the killing of William, 
Elizabeth openly declared herself with the Dutch 
and sent armed forces to their aid, among them 
Sir Philip Sidney, called the " Flower of Chivalry." 
413. Growth of the Netherlands. — The aid given 
to the Netherlands by Elizabeth enraged Philip, 
who now turned against England, partly also to 
enforce his claim to the crown, which had been 
bequeathed to him by Mary Stuart, and the dis- 
aster of the Armada was the consequence. His 
campaign against Henry of Navarre, following 
shortly after, was a further drain on the resources 
of Spain, and made it impossible for him to re- 
turn with the old vigour to the attack against 
the Netherlands. Philip II. died in 1598, but the 
contest was carried on by his son, Philip III. 
Maurice, the son of William the Silent, who was 
at the head of the Netherlanders, continued to 
win victory after victory, and Spain at last saw 
herself confronted by the necessity of coming to 
terms with her revolted subjects. Negotiations 



7 HE ERA OF THE RE FOR MA TION 5O9 

were begun and a twelve-years truce was ar- 
ranged by the treaty of 1609. This was the be- 
ginning of the end. When the truce was over, 
the Thirty Years' War was raging in Europe, and 
a weak attempt of Spain to subjugate the Dutch 
was repulsed. In 1 648 Spain finally acknowledged 
the independence of the Dutch Republic. 

The most remarkable feature of the war for 
Dutch independence was the commercial and in- 
tellectual advance of the republic during the 
war. At the end of the war the population had 
increased to such an extent that it equalled that 
of England. The republic became one of the 
great political powers of Europe, and attained a 
wonderful material prosperity derived from the 
world-wide trade conducted by the Dutch sailors, 
and in this period falls the formation of the East 
India and West India Companies. Acquisitions 
were also made in other parts of the world, es- 
pecially in Asia and Africa. The intellectual 
progress of the people kept pace with their ma- 
terial advancement, and the republic contributed 
much to contemporary science, while the glories 
of the school of painting established in the 
Netherlands are hardly inferior to those of the 
Italian schools of the Renaissance. 

D — France 

414. The Protestants in France. — The beginnings 
of the Reformation in France were made quite 



510 MODERN HISTORY 

independently of Luther, as there had appeared 
men who, from their study of the Scriptures, ex- 
pressed opinions very similar to those of Luther. 
However, the movement for a reform in State and 
Church received a fresh impetus from the revolt 
in Germany. 

A circle of reformers, who clamoured for a 
simplification of the Catholic faith, under the 
leadership of Lefebre, had already gained con- 
siderable influence" in France when Luther began 
to teach his doctrines in Germany. Francis I. 
began the persecution of the heretics, the most 
fearful crime of the age being the extermination 
of the Waldenses (or Vaudois) in 1545. His suc- 
cessor, Henry II., was a religious fanatic and con- 
tinued the persecutions, hundreds of the heretics 
being burned at the stake, but the result was the 
same as it had been in the Netherlands and in 
England: the faith was confirmed by the blood 
of the martyrs, and the numbers of the Protest- 
ants gained in consequence. The reformed creed 
gained adherents, especially among the nobility 
and the higher classes, and took root in the 
country of the Albigenses, in the south of France. 
They were called Huguenots, and at the time of 
the beginning of the civil and religious wars, 
which began during the reign of Francis II., they 
probably numbered about 400,000. 

415. The Leaders (1550-1600). — The leaders of 
the Catholic party were Catherine de' Medici, the 
mother of the three kings, Francis II., Charles 



THE ERA OF THE REFORMATION $11 

IX., and Henry III. ; Francis, Duke of Guise ; and 
his brother Charles, Cardinal of Lorraine. 

On the side of the Huguenots were the Bour- 
bon princes, Antoine, King of Navarre, and Louis, 
Prince of Conde ; and Gaspard de Coligny, Admiral 
of France. The greater part of the French nobil- 
ity were on the side of the Huguenots. Antoine 
of Navarre deserted the Huguenots and was killed 
in battle against them. King Henry of Navarre, 
the son of Antoine, then became the head of the 
Huguenot party. When King Henry III. was 
obliged to flee from Paris, because of the murder 
of Henry of Guise, he fled to King Henry of 
Navarre, and was assassinated by a fanatical 
Dominican monk. Henry of Navarre became 
King of France, being the first of the House of 
Bourbon, as Henry IV. He afterward abjured 
his faith and returned to the Catholic religion, in 
order to end the civil strife. 

416. St. Bartholomew's Day. — Admiral Coligny 
secured a great influence over Charles IX. and in- 
curred the enmity of Catherine de' Medici and the 
Guises. Fearing the loss of her influence over her 
son, Catherine resolved upon the death of Coligny 
and an attempt was made to murder him, but the 
bullet intended for his breast struck him in the 
arm. The king swore to take summary vengeance 
upon his assassins and the accomplices, and the 
fear of punishment and terror of discovery drove 
Catherine and the Guises to the extreme, and 
they plotted the immediate destruction of all the 



5 12 MODERN HISTORY 

Protestants within the walls of the city. The 
king was a coward and was persuaded by his 
mother to consent to the massacre, which began 
on St. Bartholomew's Day, August 24, 1572, at 
midnight, and lasted for three days and three 
nights in the city, and for many days after in the 
provinces. The victims of the fanatics are vari- 
ously estimated at from 2000 to 10,000 in Paris 
alone, and 20,000 to 30,000 throughout the coun- 
try, although modern historians quote figures 
much lower. Instead of exterminating heresy in 
France, the fearful massacre of St. Bartholomew's 
Day only served to rouse the Huguenots to a 
firmer defence of their faith and the war flamed 
up again. The country was in a state of turmoil 
after the accession of Henry IV., w r ho became 
King of France after the assassination of Henry 
III. 

Henry IV. was the son of Antoine of Bourbon, 
King of Navarre, whom he succeeded in 1572. 
He escaped the massacre of St. Bartholomew's 
Day by temporarily denying his faith, and after 
the death of Henry III. became King of France in 
1589. His claim to the throne was disputed by 
the Holy League. 

417. Henry IV. (1589-16 10). — The Holy League 
declared for Cardinal Charles of Bourbon, whom 
they proclaimed king under the title of Charles X. 
Henry IV. succeeded in defeating the army of the 
League in 1590, and after embracing the Catholic 
faith (1593), he was generally recognised by the 



THE ERA OF THE REFORMATION 5 1 3 

Catholics, although the League still carried on the 
war with the aid of Spain. He published the Edict 
of Nantes in 1598, and concluded a peace with the 
League and Spain in the same year, ending the 
wars of the Huguenots. He was assassinated by 
Ravaillac, a Catholic fanatic, in 1610. 

The Edict of Nantes permitted the establish- 
ment of the Protestant worship, but excluded it 
from all the Episcopal cities, and from Paris. It 
placed the Catholics and Protestants on the same 
level before the law, and gave to the Protestants, 
as a sort of refuge and defence, a number of 
fortified towns, among them La Rochelle. 

The immediate effect of the Edict of Nantes 
was the religious pacification of the country. 
However, the last measures of the Edict, which 
placed in the hands of the Huguenots a number 
of fortified towns, and thus made them an inde- 
pendent armed power within the state, an army 
and the fortified towns having legally become 
their possession, were the cause of the ambition of 
the Huguenot chiefs to found in France a Pro- 
testant commonwealth similar to that set up by 
William of Orange in the Netherlands. This 
ambition was crushed by Cardinal Richelieu. 

418. Louis XIII. — Louis XIII. was the son of 
Henry IV., whom he succeeded in 1610. He was 
then nine years of age, find his mother, Marie de' 
Medici, was regent until he was declared of age, in 
1 61 4. He chose for his prime minister the Car- 
dinal Richelieu, who remained in office until his 



514 MODERN HISTORY 

death in 1642. The chief event of the reign of 
Louis XIII. was the destruction of the power of 
the Huguenots by the siege and capture of La 
Rochelle. He centralised the power of the gov- 
ernment in the hands of the king, and made him- 
self independent of the nobles and the parliament. 

419. Richelieu. — Richelieu was born in 1585. He 
was educated for the Church; became bishop in 
1607 ; was exiled in 161 7 ; made cardinal in 1622, 
and became prime minister in 1624, remaining in 
this office until his death. 

The aims of Richelieu were the destruction of 
the power of the Huguenots, which he accom- 
plished by the siege and capture of La Rochelle; 
and the lessening of the power of the nobles, the 
greater part of whom were Protestants, who were 
constantly challenging the royal authority and 
threatening the dismemberment of the kingdom. 
He increased the influence of France abroad, and 
the power of the crown at home, virtually making 
the king independent of the nobles and of parlia- 
ment, and he also accomplished the abatement of 
the power of the House of Habsburg, whose in- 
fluence in the affairs of Europe was destroyed by 
the intervention of France and Sweden in the 
Thirty Years' War. Briefly, he made the king ab- 
solute in France and France the ruler of Europe. 

E — The Thirty Years' War 

420. The Last Combat between Protestantism and 
Catholicism in Europe. — The real cause of the 



THE ERA OF THE REFORMATION 515 

Thirty Years' War was the irreconcilable charac- 
ter of Protestantism and Catholicism in Germany. 
The more specific cause must be sought in the de- 
fective character of the Religious Peace of Augs- 
burg. Three of the articles were especial causes 
of trouble. The first was the provision that each 
secular prince was given the right to turn out of 
his domain all persons who did not accept the 
State Creed. The second was the so-called Ec- 
clesiastical Reservation, which tried to protect 
the Catholic Church by forbidding all future 
secularisations of her territory; and third, the 
stipulation that any spiritual prince upon be- 
coming Protestant was required to give up his 
land and office. Peace was preserved under the 
immediate successors of Charles, but with the ac- 
cession of Rudolph II., in 1576, the Jesuits were 
allowed much freedom in the prosecution of their 
work, and the result was the reconversion of 
many princes and whole territories, which thus 
became lost to the Protestant cause. Rudolph 
was an intolerant Catholic and his policy towards 
the Protestants led the latter to form a confede- 
ration, called the Evangelical Union. 

The organisation of the Protestants was followed 
in the next year by a similar step on the part 
of the Catholics, who united in the so-called Holy 
League, in 1609. The head of the League was 
Maximilian, Duke of Bavaria, while at the head 
of the Union was Frederick, the Elector Palatine 
of the Rhine, but as he was a Calvinist, he received 



5 l6 MODERN HISTORY 

only a wavering support, Prince Christian of An- 
halt, the organiser of the confederation, being the 
actual head. The friction between the two par- 
ties caused a terrible suspense, and the opinion 
was general that only an occasion was wanted to 
begin the war. This occasion was furnished by 
Bohemia in 1618, when the Protestants, angered 
beyond endurance by the iniquities inflicted upon 
them by Mathias, who had succeeded Rudolph in 
1 61 2, rose in open revolt, invaded the castle at 
Prague, and tossed the representatives of the king 
roughly out of the window. The Protestants 
then organised a government of their own, and 
the Jesuits were expelled. Thus the long-waited- 
for signal had been given for a bitter conflict which 
lasted for thirty years, and which towards the 
end developed into a heartless and shameful 
struggle for power and territory. 

421. Gustavus Adolphus. — Gustavus Adolphus, 
King of Sweden, was born in 1594; was killed 
in battle in 1632. Three wars were raging when 
he became king, — with Denmark, Russia, and 
Poland. He concluded a peace with Denmark; 
compelled Russia to cede some of her possessions, 
and, through the mediation of Cardinal Richelieu, 
agreed to an armistice of six years with Poland, 
in order to be able to invade Germany to render 
assistance to the Protestants, who were hard 
pressed by the armies of the emperor. An alli- 
ance with France was entered into, because France 
feared the increase of power of the House of 



THE ERA OF THE REFORMATION 517 

Habsburg, while Gustavus viewed with alarm the 
threatened destruction of the equilibrium be- 
tween the Protestants and Catholics in the north 
of Europe. He landed in Pomerania with a force 
numbering 15,000 men. He defeated Tilly in the 
battle at Leipsic, in 1631, and in the following 
year gained a victory over the army of the em- 
peror, under Wallenstein, but himself was killed 
in the battle of Lutzen, in 1632. 

422. Tilly. — Tilly was born in 1 5 5 9 ; diedini632. 
He was commander of the Catholic League at the 
beginning of the Thirty Years' War. In 1620 he 
defeated the Bohemians at the battle of White 
Mountains, and subdued Bohemia in the following 
year. For his services in conquering the Palatin- 
ate he was made a count in 1622 by Ferdinand II. 
He conducted a successful campaign against Den- 
mark, and defeated Christian IV. in 1626, but 
having been wounded in Schleswig-Holstein, had 
to leave the finishing of the campaign to Wallen- 
stein. After the retirement of Wallenstein, Tilly 
was made commander-in-chief of the imperial 
forces. His only important success after this was 
the taking of Magdeburg, which was accompanied 
by frightful cruelties, 30,000 persons perishing 
and the entire city being burned, save a few 
churches and a few hovels. Tilly was not equal in 
military genius to Gustavus Adolphus, and was 
defeated at Leipsic four months after the taking 
of Magdeburg. He attempted to bar Gustavus 
from passing over the Lech, and in the conflict 



5 I 8 MODERN HISTORY 

which ensued was mortally wounded and died at 
Ingolstadt, in April, 1632. 

423. Wallenstein. — Wallenstein was born in 
1583; was assassinated at Eger, in Bohemia, in 
1634. He was educated as a Protestant, but 
afterward was put in a Jesuit college, and became 
a Catholic. He was placed in command of the 
emperor's army in 1625, and in 1626 defeated 
Mansfeld at Dessau. After winning Silesia for the 
emperor, he besieged Stralsund in 1628, but with- 
out success; he was removed from his command 
in 1630, but in 1632, when the cause of the em- 
peror seemed really desperate, he was recalled 
and raised an army, at the head of which he drove 
out the Saxons from Bohemia, and met the army 
of Gustavus Adolphus at Lutzen, in Saxony. 
After a terrible battle Wallenstein was defeated, 
and shortly after, being suspected of treachery, 
was relieved of his command (January, 1634), and 
in February, 1634, was murdered in his bedcham- 
ber by some of his officers. 

424. The Treaty of Westphalia. — The provi- 
sions of the Treaty of Westphalia, signed in 1648 at 
Minister and Osnabruck, ending the Thirty Years' 
War, were, in the main, as follows: Switzerland 
and Holland were declared independent. Sweden 
received a part of Pomerania, Wismar, Bremen, 
etc., three votes in the diet, and an indemnifi- 
cation in money. France received the greater 
part of Alsace, and her possession of Metz, Toul, 
and Verdun was acknowledged. Brandenburg re- 



THE ERA OF THE REFORMATION 519 

ceived a part of Pomerania, Halberstadt, and 
Minden. Saxony received Lusatia, and Bavaria 
the Upper Palatinate. 

The Peace of Augsburg was confirmed by the 
treaty and its provisions were extended to the 
Calvinists; the Protestants were to retain all 
the ecclesiastical property that had been in their 
possession in 1624, and autonomy was granted to 
all the states of the German Empire. 

425. Effects of the War upon Germany. — Although 
contemporary stories of the devastation and ruin 
of Germany may be accepted as exaggerated, the 
country lay insensible and exhausted after the 
long struggle, and took more than a hundred 
years to recover, and, in some respects, may be 
said to be recovering only now. The generation 
that survived the war had grown up without 
schools and without churches, and the influence of 
the licentious atmosphere of the camp was only 
gradually eradicated. Political disunion and 
weakness added to the evil already existing, and 
Germany became a loose assemblage of states vir- 
tually independent, of which there were over two 
hundred. 



THE ERA OF THE POLITICAL 
REVOLUTION 

(FROM THE PEACE OF WESTPHALIA, IN 1648, TO 
THE PRESENT TIME) 

A — The Ascendancy of France 

426. Absolute Government of Louis XIV. — The 

reign of Louis XIV., the Grand Monarch, is the 
time of France's greatest splendour; but while 
the monarch and his minions lived in the greatest 
luxury the people were groaning under the burden 
of taxation imposed to meet the demands of this 
expense and of the numerous wars carried on. 
Louis XIV. was the representative of Absolute 
Monarchy. 

427. The Divine Right of Kings. — According to 
the theory of the "divine right of kings," the na- 
tion constitutes a great family, with the king at 
the head, or as the father of the nation. The duty 
of the king is to rule like a father ; the duty of the 
people is to obey the king as children obey their 
father. It is not right for the people to rebel 
against the authority of the king if he is cruel, 
harsh, or unjust, this being only a misfortune of 

520 



THE ERA OF THE POLITICAL REVOLUTION 52 1 

the people. The king is accountable to God 
alone, and to God must the people leave the 
avenging of all their wrongs. 

This theory had the effect of raising the king 
above the law and also above all the institutions 
which served as a barrier to his will. In this lay 
the danger of the system. The monarchs forgot 
that they were to attain any object beyond 
their own pleasure, and the abuses that resulted 
brought about the revolution of the people, who 
desired a government founded on more just and 
popular principles. 

On the death of Cardinal Richelieu, Cardinal 
Mazarin was appointed prime minister, and was 
retained in office by the queen regent, Anne of 
Austria, who reigned for Louis XIV., then only 
nine years of age, after the death of Louis XIII., 
which occurred in 1 643 . During his administration 
Mazarin continued the policy of his predecessor, 
which looked to the abatement of the power of 
Austria by interference in favour of the Protest- 
ants during the Thirty Years' War. His policy at 
home, of centralisation of the administrative au- 
thority in the Crown, caused bitter opposition by 
the nobles, and gave rise to the wars of the 
Fronde. In 1659 he concluded the war with 
Spain by the peace of the Pyrennees, whereby 
France gained advantageous terms. Mazarin 
died in 1661. 

428. Louis XIV. Takes the Reins in his own Hands. 
— After the death of Mazarin, Louis XIV. became 



522 MODERN HISTORY 

his own minister, and Colbert, who had been 
designated by Mazarin as his successor, acted only 
as the head of the king's assistants. 

Louis XIV. was not satisfied to be called 
" Great " at home only, but it was his ambition to 
establish a great empire, and in fact he aspired 
to become the ruler of all Europe, and even more 
than that, as his plans included the founding of 
an enormous empire in America. His desire for 
conquests and the dreams of a French universal 
monarchy involved him in many wars, and al- 
though his arms were very successful, in the 
end the country was left in an exhausted state, 
the treasury empty, and the army broken ; while 
his policy had slowly paved the way for the 
Revolution. 

In 1685 Louis XIV. revoked the Edict of Nantes 
by which Henry IV. had given the Huguenots 
civil rights and liberty of worship, and which 
policy both Richelieu and Mazarin had continued. 
The cruel measure ordered the closing of all the 
Protestant churches, and every Huguenot who 
refused to embrace the Catholic faith was out- 
lawed, the result being that over 50,000 families 
were driven out of the kingdom. The persecutions 
of the Huguenots under Louis XIV. are called the 
Dragonnades, because Louvois, his minister of war, 
persuaded him to quarter the dragoons in the 
houses of the Huguenots, giving the men full per- 
mission to harass and insult the families with 
whom they lived. Many of the victims of these 



THE ERA OF THE POLITICAL REVOLUTION 523 

outrages embraced the Catholic faith simply to 
rid themselves of their persecutors, while many 
thousands left the country, some of the most im- 
portant industries being ruined in consequence. 

Louis XIV. sustained a most magnificent court, 
and its manners and its extravagance were imi- 
tated, while French taste and fashion gave the 
law to the continent, and the French language be- 
came the Court language of the civilised world. 
Louis had half a dozen palaces, the most costly of 
which was that at Versailles, upon which a sum 
as high as $100,000,000 was spent. At his Court 
Louis gathered all the men of rank and note of 
France, and he gave a most liberal encouragement 
to men of letters, so that his reign is called the 
Augustan Age of French literature. At his Court 
he exacted the most ceremonious courtesy, and 
the sharp Court etiquette was never relaxed. Be- 
sides being artificial, the life of the Court of Louis 
XIV. was corrupt as well, but the immoralities 
were hidden by superficial accomplishment and by 
suavity and polish of manners. Although he was 
susceptible to flattery, Louis was an able man, 
and after having taken the management of the 
state upon his own shoulders, he laboured as dili- 
gently at his task as any peasant did in digging 
the soil, and every day he spent nearly eight full 
hours in the consideration of public affairs. The 
long and eventful reign of Louis XIV. towards 
the close was filled with troubles and afflictions. 
The heavy and constant taxes, which were needed 



524 MODERN HISTORY 

to pay the expenses of his many wars, had bank- 
rupted the country. His army was no more, and 
of his navy only a few ships remained. Death had 
taken from him his son, a daughter, and two 
grandsons, and his great-grandson, who was to 
succeed him, was a mere child of five years at the 
time of his death, in 17 15. His confessor, Le 
Tellier, and his wife, Madame de Maintenon, both 
left him to die alone, but the king retained his 
dignity to the last. When the news reached 
Paris that the king had died, the people, who in 
the first part of his reign had called him the 
"Great," were now rejoicing because he was no 
more. 

429. Louis XV. — Louis XV. was the great- 
grandson of Louis XIV. He was born in 17 10; 
died in 1774. He was only five years of age 
when Louis XIV. died, and during his minority 
the government was administered by the duke of 
Orleans. In 1723 he was declared of age, and in 
1725 married Marie Leczinska, the daughter of 
the dethroned king of Poland, Stanislaus. Louis 
XV. engaged in a war with Germany in order to 
force the emperor to reinstate Stanislaus on the 
throne of Poland. The matter was compromised 
by the granting of the duchy of Lorraine on the 
expelled king. In 1741 he joined the coalition 
against Marie Theresa of Austria, but the war 
ended without anything being gained. In 1755 
the so-called French and Indian War broke out in 
America and India, and in 1756 Louis became in- 



THE ERA OF THE POLITICAL REVOLUTION 525 

volved in the Seven Years' War, fighting on the 
side of Austria and Russia against Prussia and 
England. By the Treaty of Paris, which he signed 
in 1763, France lost Canada and Louisiana, while 
India had been lost by the victory of Lord Clive 
in 1757. During the reign of Louis XV. France 
was steadily losing in prestige and importance, 
and when he died, in 1774, the kingdom was left 
impoverished, oppressed, and discontented, pre- 
pared for the Revolution which was to break out 
fifteen years later. 

B — The Government of France 

430. Political History of France. — The political 
history of France from feudal days to the French 
Revolution covers a period which in some respects 
is of unparalleled brilliancy. The French have 
been characterised as fickle, unstable, revolution- 
ary, and a superficial examination of their history 
during the century and a half just past might 
seem to justify it. However, there can be ques- 
tion of the revolutionary character of French 
politics during the period named above. The 
conditions of any given time were evolved from 
those preceding it, and in their turn they passed, 
by an unbroken continuity, into the conditions of 
later times. 

431. The French Monarchy. — The beginning of 
the French monarchy proper is placed in the 
tenth century, when Hugh Capet, Duke of France, 



526 MODERN HISTORY 

became king. However, his power was scarcely 
greater than that of the heads of the various great 
feudal principalities, who acknowledged him as 
their suzerain. The name of France applied only 
to the duchy of that name, and while the first 
Capetian king held merely a dignified title, the 
domains of the dukes of France were being 
steadily added to by his successors, and treaties, 
conquests, and marriage alliances served to in- 
crease their possessions. The process of territorial 
expansion and of unification of the petty feudal 
states into one great nation with a centralised 
government resulted in the creation of a de- 
spotic monarchy, which, although it signified a 
decrease of individual liberty, was a stepping- 
stone to modern progress and civilisation, leading 
to constitutional representative government. 

432. Local Self- Government. — The final institu- 
tion of the monarchy took away not only the 
power of the feudal lords, but it also subverted 
local self-government, which had been allowed to 
nourish in many of the feudal baronies, and nei- 
ther the Revolution nor the Republic have suc- 
ceeded in restoring to it the full vigour and life it 
had shown in feudal times and even in the initial 
stages of the process of unification. 

During the feudal times many rural communi- 
ties received charters from their overlords, which 
permitted them to establish and administer their 
own popular government, regulate the matter of 
feudal rights and duties, and prescribe the per- 



THE ERA OF THE POLITICAL REVOLUTION 527 

formance of corvees, services to be rendered to 
the feudal lord, such as repairs of the roads, etc. 
The government of the communities was admin- 
istered by a general assembly which had the 
power to assign officers to the performance of 
various functions, and had the jurisdiction in the 
management of the property of the community 
and the collection of taxes. Popular privilege ex- 
tended even to the administration of justice, as 
every person possessed the right to be tried by his 
peers, and vassals were present in the courts of 
the barons to act as judges. 

While the privileges of self-government allowed 
the rural communities under the feudal system 
were considerable, they did not free them from 
any of the duties of their position as vassals to 
their overlords. In contradistinction to this, 
many towns acquired virtual independence, by 
purchase from the feudal lords, by force if neces- 
sary, being aided in their struggle against the 
feudal barons by the kings, whose policy advised 
friendliness towards the townspeople. The kings 
even took advantage of the occasion to exercise 
their royal prerogative by granting municipal citi- 
zenship to dissatisfied vassals, thus creating the 
bourgeoisie du roi. 

433. Roman and Non-Roman Municipalities. — 
When the Teutons invaded the south of Gaul, they 
conquered many Roman cities, but as they were 
averse to town life, they did not further interfere 
with their affairs, so that these municipalities 



528 MODERN HISTORY 

retained the Roman form of organisation. Teu- 
tonic influence made itself felt to some slight ex- 
tent ; but the administration remained based upon 
Roman example, these towns being governed by 
Co-operative Councils, consisting of aristocrats at 
first, but later the democracy, by the aid of the 
Church, succeeded in establishing itself in power. 

In the north of Gaul the towns took upon them- 
selves the distinct forms of non-Roman, Germanic 
municipalities, which adapted themselves to the 
existing political conditions, acquiring privileges 
of self-government from the feudal lords, and al- 
though they thus became closely interwoven with 
the feudal system, their privileges, as well as their 
duties, were well defined by their charters, and 
regulated by their relation to the overlords. They 
administered their own government, but a prevost 
acted as the representative of the feudal lord in 
municipal affairs. The latter form of city govern- 
ment, being the more secure by virtue of its close 
connection with the prevailing political system, 
became the general type in France. 

434. Municipal Self-Government. — The towns grew 
to acquire privileges quite extensive, so that, out- 
side of their tributary obligations to the lords or 
the king, they were virtually without restriction 
in the management of their own affairs. The ad- 
ministration of the municipality was conducted 
either by a legislative and an executive assembly, 
or sometimes by only one popular assembly. 
The magistrates were the mayor and the aldermen, 



THE ERA OF THE POLITICAL REVOLUTION 529 

who constituted the corps de ville. Besides enjoy- 
ing the privilege of making their own laws, the 
towns administered their own justice, raised the 
taxes for the king, or the feudal lord, as well as for 
their own expenses, and appointed their own 
police. 

With the establishment of the monarchy be- 
gan the decay of local self-government, which, 
although in some cases ascribable to internal de- 
generation, was wrought generally by the growth 
of royal power, and while the towns had been 
aided by the king in their contest with the feudal 
lords, in the process of centralisation the privi- 
leges of not only the cities, but of the provinces 
as well, were greatly curtailed, and at last were 
entirely subverted. 

435. The Pays d' Etats. — The Pays d'Etats were 
provinces having local self - government, their 
affairs being directed by the Estates, or assem- 
blies of nobles, the Clergy, and the Commons. 
The early form of this organisation can be traced 
in the Pays d'Etats, so called after the royal power 
had been established, when the Estates assembled 
at a call from the king, and in the presence of 
royal officials, all of their resolutions being subject 
to the sanction of the king. It is likely that in 
the early times the Estates of the provinces were 
merely the feudal councils, composed of repre- 
sentatives of those who possessed individual or 
corporate privileges, the feudal lords deeming it 
advisable to consult them in questions involving 



530 MODERN HISTORY 

provincial affairs. The Pays d'Etats purchased 
from the crown the privilege to collect the taxes 
imposed by the king, and they imposed local taxes 
to defray expenses, besides enjoying the privilege 
of carrying out their own plans of improvement, 
and this comparative freedom gave to the Pays 
d'Etats a life full of vigour and thrift which con- 
tinued for some time even after other parts of the 
country had lost such liberties as they had pos- 
sessed before the government came to be centred 
in Paris. 

436. Effect of the Crusades. — The crusades served 
to greatly increase the privileges enjoyed by the 
towns. As the feudal lords were anxious to raise 
sufficient moneys for the equipment and mainten- 
ance of a retinue with which to join in the Holy 
Wars, they willingly gave to the towns special 
grants, in return for the sums needed, and, as 
many of the knights never returned from the ill- 
fated expeditions, their purpose notwithstanding, 
and those who did return were scarcely in position 
to compete with the towns, the influence of the 
crusades was towards the extension of town 
privileges. 

The process of the transformation of the petty 
feudal states into a monarchy was aided and ac- 
celerated by the crusades for the aforetold reason, 
as the kings did not join in the first crusades, and 
were thus enabled to use the absence of the nobles 
to their own advantage. Later, when they did 
join in the expeditions, they had strengthened 



THE ERA OF THE POLITICAL REVOLUTION 53 1 

their own power to such an extent as to render 
their presence less imperative for the maintenance 
of the advantages previously gained. 

437. The States-General.— The States-General of 
France was the royal council as constituted after 
the representatives of the Third Estate, or the 
burghers, had been added to it by Philip IV., in 
1302. The reason for this action had been the 
desire of the king to ascertain whether he would 
have the support of all his people, in case he should 
be compelled to proceed with extreme measures 
against the Papacy, with which a dispute had 
arisen respecting the control of the offices and 
revenues of the French Church. Previous to the 
admission of the Third Estate the council had 
been composed of representatives of the nobles 
and the clergy only. 

The kings respected the States-General while 
their power was still in progress of ascendancy, 
but after it once had firmly been established, they 
paid little attention to it, and the States- General 
never attained actual legislative authority, and 
the influence of the Third Estate in France re- 
mained practically nothing until the time of the 
French Revolution. It had no such history as 
the House of Commons in England, the reason for 
this being an absence of organisation, as the three 
Estates met in sessions apart from each other. 
They were never consulted in regard to taxation, 
and did not possess the right to hold meetings ex- 
cept upon a call from the king, so that the States- 



532 MODERN HISTORY 

General virtually constituted merely an advisory 
board. 

438. Centralised Administration. — The centralisa- 
tion of administration was given the greatest im- 
petus by Louis IX., who perfected the work begun 
by his predecessors by extending the central gov- 
ernment to supplant all privileges of local magis- 
trates and by abolishing local self-government. 
He arranged the system of baillis and prevets, 
who were officials appointed by the crown and 
subordinated to Parliament. The principle of this 
plan was the supervision of all interests, whether 
local or individual, by the royal power through its 
representatives, who acted in the name of the 
king, and were in turn under his control. By 
granting the right of appeal to the royal courts, 
the administration of the law was also centred in 
Paris, and the powers of the baronial courts were 
greatly decreased. The subordination of all local 
magistrates to the king brought about the per- 
sonal and absolute government which attained 
its full development under Louis XIV. The head 
of the centralised government was the intendant, a 
direct appointee of the king, and his delegates 
took the places of the magistrates who hitherto 
had been elected by the people. 

439, Councils of State and Royal Council. — The 
older Councils of State exercised judicial as well 
as political and financial functions. The import- 
ance of the household officers, who, with the 
feudal court, had conducted the administration 



THE ERA OF THE POLITICAL REVOLUTION 533 

under the Capetian dukes, gradually diminished, 
and the necessity for the separation of the divers 
functions became apparent with the growth of the 
monarchy. This separation was accomplished by 
Philip IV. in the same year that witnessed the ad- 
mission of the Third Estate to the States-General ; 
and the old household officials were absorbed by 
the committees. 

The body to which the political functions had 
been assigned retained the name of Council of 
State, while the judicial functions were assigned 
to the Parliament of Paris, the financial to the 
Chamber of Accounts, and matters of taxation 
formed the duties of the Chamber of Subsidies. 

440. Effect of the French Revolution. — The French 
Revolution had but little effect on the centralised 
system of government administration, because 
the people, although they had repudiated the 
sovereignty of the king, and declared themselves 
supreme, were unable to devise a new system 
of administration which would work toward the 
perfection of republican interests. Instead of de- 
veloping local administrative tendencies they 
simply continued the old system by having 
Assembly and Convention govern them as their 
representatives through Councils and Directories. 

C — England 

441. "Divine Right" and "Royal Touch" in Eng- 
land. — The kings of England were believed to 
possess the power of healing scrofulous persons by 



534 MODERN HISTORY 

the laying on of hands, which power was trans- 
mitted to them from Edward the Confessor. This 
superstition was largely instrumental in establish- 
ing the authority of the doctrine of the ' ' divine 
right," as in the eyes of the people the effectiveness 
of the "royal touch" was a visible attestation of 
the sanctity of the royal line. 

442. Gunpowder Plot. — In the third year of the 
reign of James the First of England, some Catho- 
lics, disappointed in the king's position towards 
their religion, entered into a conspiracy to blow 
up with gunpowder the Parliament building, on 
the opening day of the session, when the king, the 
lords, and the commons would all be present. 
The conspiracy, which is known as the Gunpowder 
Plot, had for its ultimate object a rising of the 
Catholics and the proclaiming of a new sovereign. 
The conspiracy was discovered, Guy Fawkes, the 
leader, was seized while keeping watch in the 
cellar beneath the Parliament building, put to 
the rack, and finally executed with several of his 
accomplices. 

The effect of the Gunpowder Plot was that it 
left the Catholic party in England subject to 
steadily increasing hatred and distrust, which 
with the severe measures enacted by Parliament 
in consequence of the alarm caused by the Plot 
resulted in the reduction of the Catholics to an 
element of small importance among the popula- 
tion of England. 

443. James I. and Parliament. — The idea of 



THE ERA OF THE POLITICAL REVOLUTION 535 

King James I. of the "divine right" of kings 
brought him very often into conflict with Parlia- 
ment. The chief points upon which the disputes 
rested were the authority of the king in regard to 
legislation and taxation, the right of Parliament 
to discuss matters of state, and the extent of 
its privilege and jurisdiction. James I. not only 
spoke, but acted as well, as if his prerogatives 
were unlimited. He issued many proclamations 
the scope of which made them equal to laws, and 
then persisted in enforcing these measures by fines 
and imprisonment. As some of the laws regu- 
lating the power of the king in collecting the cus- 
toms were indefinite, James took advantage of 
this, and laid down new rules concerning duties 
on imports and exports. His judges were serv- 
ile enough to sustain him in these acts, declaring 
that the seaports were the king's gates, which he 
was at liberty to open or shut, to whomsoever 
he pleased. Parliament insisted upon its right 
to discuss questions pertaining to the common 
welfare and the interest of the country without 
being liable to imprisonment for words spoken in 
the House. This right James denied, and he as- 
serted that it was only through his graciousness 
that they were permitted to exercise their privi- 
leges, and that if they should fail to act in accord- 
ance with his wishes he would take away all their 
privileges. Parliament finally entered a vigorous 
protest against this interpretation of the king's 
power, but James sent for the Journal and tore 



536 MODERN HISTORY 

out the page on which the objectionable entry was 
made, and went even so far as to imprison some of 
the members of the House. 

The king's understanding of the prerogatives 
of his office paved the way for the break which was 
to occur between the king and the people during 
the reign of his successor. 

444. Charles I. (1625-1649). — Charles I. entered 
upon his office with the identical understanding 
of the privileges and rights of the king that had 
caused the continuous friction between Parliament 
and his father. While under Elizabeth Parlia- 
ment was docile, even while opposing some of her 
measures, and, while under James it had always 
remained in respectful attitude, the friction had 
brought it about that Parliament under Charles 
I. occupied a position hostile to the king, deny- 
ing that his authority was higher than that of Par- 
liament. The marriage of Charles to the sister of 
Louis XIII. of France, a Catholic, made matters 
still worse, and his liberalism in religion aroused 
the Commons against him to such an extent that 
they entered upon a policy emphatically Pro- 
testant. Another matter which aided to widen 
the breach between the monarch and the Com- 
mons was the failure of Parliament to vote the 
necessary moneys to carry on the war with Spain. 
Charles dissolved two Parliaments in succession be- 
cause of these differences, but after an unsuccess- 
ful attempt to raise the money by " benevolences " 
and forced loans, he was compelled to again con- 



THE ERA OF THE POLITICAL REVOLUTION 537 

vene Parliament. When the houses met, they 
expressed their willingness to grant to the king 
the support he wished, but they did so on condi- 
tion that he sign the Petition of Right, in which 
they insisted that certain grievances of the nation 
be redressed. Among other measures the docu- 
ment declared "benevolences" illegal without 
the consent of Parliament, and arbitrary imprison- 
ment, the quartering of soldiers in private houses, 
and trials without jury were to be stopped. 

Having two wars on hand and no money, 
Charles was forced to sign the document, and the 
Petition of Right became the law of the land. 
However, it soon developed that he was not sin- 
cere when he put his signature to the document, 
as he violated the provisions of the Petition of 
Right by attempting to raise money by taxes and 
loans which were expressly prohibited by it. He 
resented the failure of Parliament to vote the 
usual Tunnage and Poundage, as some of the 
customs duties, which constituted the most con- 
siderable income of his treasury, were called, and 
prorogued Parliament, but not before the mem- 
bers had voted the levy of Tunnage and Poundage 
illegal, and that whoever paid it was a traitor. 
Charles now ruled without Parliament, and con- 
tinued to do so for eleven years, 1 629-1 640, the 
government of England thus being changed from 
a government by king, lords, and the Commons, to 
an absolute monarchy. His chief advisers during 
this term were Thomas Wentworth and William 



538 MODERN HISTORY 

Laud, the former devoting himself to establishing 
the royal despotism in civil matters, while the 
latter was in a position to put the king's preroga- 
tives in regard to religious affairs into practice. 

Ship-money was a tax levied by Charles for pur- 
poses of creating a navy. This had been done 
formerly in times of war, and the counties border- 
ing on the sea had been obliged to furnish ships. 
But Charles carried this further, and in 1635 
ordered the inland counties to furnish money for 
the purpose. His course aroused a general pro- 
test, and a country gentleman named Hampden 
refused the payment, and preferred to suffer ar- 
rest and trial. He was convicted, but by the 
country at large he was looked upon as a hero, 
and the dissatisfaction which the result of the 
trial created proved that the prestige of the royal 
dignity had been much impaired by the unwise 
course of the king. 

445. Civil War. — In 1640 Charles was again 
forced to convene Parliament, which, because it 
sat continuously for twelve years, is called the 
Long Parliament. As soon as it was installed, 
Thomas Wentworth, who had been made Earl of 
Strafford by the king, and Laud, were impeached, 
tried, and executed; Strafford in 1641, Laud in 
1645. In order to secure themselves from inter- 
ference, Parliament passed a law providing that 
the Commons could not be adjourned or dis- 
solved without their own consent. The king 
now attempted to overawe the Commons, and 



THE ERA OF THE POLITICAL REVOLUTION 539 

preferring the charge of treason against five of 
the leading members, Hampden, Pym, Holies, 
Strode, and Hazelrigg, went to the House, ac- 
companied by armed attendants, for the purpose 
of seizing them. However, they had been warned 
and could not be found, whereat the king ex- 
claimed, "I see the birds have flown," and with- 
drew from the chamber. His act caused such 
public indignation at the insult offered to the 
representatives of the people, that Charles had 
not the courage to brave the storm, and fled to 
York. From this flight, 1642, may be dated the 
beginning of the Civil War. 

After his flight Charles opened negotiations 
with Parliament with a view to a reconciliation, 
but the terms which that body now demanded 
were unreasonable and unconstitutional, stipu- 
lating that even the education and marriage of 
the king's children should be left in control of the 
two houses, and the king refused to submit. He 
unfurled his banner at Nottingham, and called to 
all loyal Englishmen to rally around their king. 
Parliament also gathered an army and prepared 
to engage in war with the king, which ended 
in the king's defeat, trial, and execution "as 
a tyrant, traitor, murderer, and enemy of his 
country." 

446. Oliver Cromwell. — Oliver Cromwell was 
born in 1599; he died in 1658. He was a mem- 
ber of Parliament in 1628, and was appointed a 
colonel of cavalry in 1642. In 1643 he organised 



540 MODERN HISTORY 

a regiment composed chiefly of men of religion, 
which, because of its invincible courage, became 
known as Cromwell's Ironsides. He fought with 
distinction in various battles of the Civil War, 
and reorganised the army. Because of his posi- 
tion as leader of the Independents and his popu- 
larity with the army, he came into actual control 
of the government upon the establishment of the 
Commonwealth in 1649. In 1653 he was made 
Lord Protector of England, Scotland, and Ireland. 

Oliver Cromwell fiercely denounced the lax 
method of carrying on the war, and his criticisms 
were so convincing that his suggestions for re- 
forms were adopted by the Commons. In 1644 
the so-called Self-Denying Ordinance was passed, 
which required members of Parliament to give 
up their other positions, military and civil, with 
a few exceptions. This was aimed, however, at 
members who held commands in the army, and 
by the New Model Ordinance the army was re- 
modelled in similarity to Cromwell's Ironsides. 
Sir Thomas Fairfax was made commander-in- 
chief, but Cromwell was the actual head of 
the army. 

447. The Commonwealth. — After the execution 
of Charles, the Commons abolished the monarchy 
and the House of Lords, and established a re- 
public, under the name of "The Commonwealth." 
This act met with little approbation on the 
continent, all the sovereigns being alarmed be- 
cause of the execution of Charles. The Scots 



THE ERA OF THE POLITICAL REVOLUTION 541 

proclaimed the son of Charles as king, with the 
title Charles II. , and the Irish also declared in fa- 
vour of the king, while the Netherlands were actu- 
ally preparing to render him assistance. 

Cromwell took the field against the opposition, 
and conquered Ireland and Scotland after a cam- 
paign filled with atrocities and massacres. Charles 
escaped into Normandy. In 1653 Cromwell dis- 
persed the Long Parliament by force of arms, and 
called a new session, the so-called Little Parlia- 
ment, which was composed chiefly of religious 
men. This Parliament sat for a few months 
only, but accomplished some excellent work, and 
suggested important reforms. Finally the power 
was concentrated entirely in the hands of Crom- 
well, who now took the title of " Lord High Pro- 
tector of the Commonwealth." 

Although Cromwell was virtually a dictator, 
his government of England was wise, strong, and 
in many respects the best since the times of 
Henry VII. and Elizabeth. 

During the Commonwealth, numbers of the 
Royalists were obliged to take refuge in flight. 
Among them were John Washington, the great- 
grandfather of George Washington; also the 
ancestors of Jefferson, Patrick Henry, Lee, Ran- 
dolph, and others, who settled in Virginia mainly. 

448. The Restoration of the Stuarts. — The re-estab- 
lishment of the monarchy, with Charles II. as king, 
is called the Restoration. It took place in 1660. 

After the resignation from the Protectorate of 



542 MODERN HIS TOR Y 

Richard Cromwell, son of Oliver Cromwell, in 
1659, the country was on the verge of anarchy. 
Finally George Monk, who had been one of Crom- 
well's ablest lieutenants, openly promoted the 
restoration of the Stuarts, and the re-establish- 
ment of the monarchy. Charles II. was only 
asked to promise a pardon to all those who 
fought against his father. This Charles did in 
a declaration made before he sailed for Eng- 
land, and the pardon was afterward ratified by 
Parliament, the members of the Court which 
condemned Charles I. to death being excepted. 
Upon landing at Dover, in 1660, Charles II. was 
received with expressions of universal joy. 

449. Puritan Literature. — In order to fully 
understand the character of the English Revolu- 
tion, especially the religious side, it is necessary 
to study the two representative products of the 
literature of the period, called "Puritan," namely 
John Milton's Paradise Lost and John Bunyan's 
Pilgrim's Progress. 

Milton was a great statesman of the Revolution, 
and was a stout champion of English liberties 
against the tyranny of the House of the Stuarts. 
After the execution of Charles I., Milton wrote 
the famous Pro Populo Anglicano Defensio in 
answer to Defensio Regia pro Carolo I., written by 
Claude of Ley den. He wrote numerous political 
works and pamphlets, but his greatest works are 
the Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained, the 
former being called the " Epic of Puritanism," 



THE ERA OF THE POLITICAL REVOLUTION 543 

because of its being the expression of the very 
best traits of the Puritan character. It was 
written during Milton's retirement from public 
work, after he had become totally blind. 

John Bunyan (i 628-1 688) was imprisoned for 
twelve years because he refused to accept the 
established form of worship, and during his im- 
prisonment he wrote the Pilgrim'' s Progress, 
which is a good illustration of Puritan habits, 
especially their constant use of biblical language, 
acquired from the study of the Bible. 

450. Charles II. (1660-1685). — After the restor- 
ation of the monarchy, Parliament granted a gene- 
ral pardon to all persons who had taken part 
in the rebellion, with the exception, however, of 
most of the judges who had condemned Charles 
I. Thirteen of the judges were executed, and 
others of the "Regicides," as they were called, 
were imprisoned for life. The bodies of Cromwell 
and other leaders were disinterred and publicly 
hanged and afterward beheaded, on the anni- 
versary of the execution of Charles I., in 1661. 

The " New Model" was ordered to disband, and 
the Puritan soldiers again became farmers and 
traders, but Charles retained in his own service 
three carefully chosen regiments, to which he gave 
the name of Guards. These form the nucleus 
of the present standing army of England. 

Among the harsh measures adopted during the 
first years of the reign of Charles II. were the 
"Corporation Act," which ordered all holders of 



544 MODERN HISTORY 

public offices to renounce the oath to maintain 
the Presbyterian faith (Covenant); the "Fourth 
Act of Uniformity, " compelling the use of the 
Episcopal Prayer-book by all clergymen ; the 
"Conventicle Act," making it a crime, punish- 
able by imprisonment, for more than five persons 
besides the household to gather in any house or 
place of worship, except when the service was 
conducted according to the Established Church; 
and, finally, the "Five Mile Act," which forbade 
any nonconformist minister who refused to swear 
that he would never attempt to make any change 
in Church or State government, and that it was 
unlawful to take up arms against the king under 
any circumstances, to settle within five miles of 
an incorporated town. 

By these harsh measures many ministers were 
reduced to direst distress, being driven from 
their parishes, and whoever dared to resist the 
intolerant laws was punished by fines, imprison- 
ment, or slavery. In Scotland Parliament abol- 
ished Presbyterianism and restored Episcopacy, 
The Covenanters were hunted by the English 
troops, and if, upon seizure, they refused to take 
the test of conformity to the Church of England 
and to the government of Chailes II., they were 
shot down without trial. 

It was the ambition of Charles II. to rule with- 
out being dependent upon Parliament, and as he 
believed that the Roman Catholic Church was 
more favourable to his scheme, he entered into a 



THE ERA OF THE POLITICAL REVOLUTION 545 

plot with Louis XIV. of France, called the Secret 
Treaty of Dover. In accordance with the terms 
of this agreement, Charles was to aid Louis XIV. 
in an attack upon Holland, for which he was to 
receive ^300,000 from the French king; and if 
the restoration of the Catholic faith in England 
should cause armed opposition, French troops 
were to be sent to assist Charles in carrying out 
his plans. Furthermore, a large pension was to 
be paid by Louis XIV. to Charles II. as soon as 
the latter had openly declared himself a Catholic. 
In 1678 Charles entered into a second treaty to 
the same effect. 

451. James II. (1685-1688). — James II., who 
succeeded to the throne after the death of his 
brother, Charles II., in 1685, was received by the 
people with the greatest enthusiasm, and his 
promises made at the time of his accession, that 
he would preserve the government both in 
Church and State as it was established by law, 
only served to strengthen the loyalty proffered 
by his subjects. 

Notwithstanding the promises made, no sooner 
was James established than he set about to re- 
store the Roman Catholic religion in England, 
and to make himself an absolute monarch. In 
order to win to his side the dissenters among the 
Protestants he published the Declaration of In- 
dulgence, suspending all the laws against the 
nonconformists, and ordered this edict read from 
all pulpits. Almost the entire clergy refused, 



546 MODERN HISTORY 

and a petition was presented to the king against 
the edict. This was declared a seditious libel 
against the king, and seven bishops who had 
dared to send the petition were sent to the Tower 
and were brought to trial. The trial resulted in 
the acquittal of the accused. The opposition of 
the people, which had been brought about by his 
despotic course, was increased when a son was 
born to him, and thus the hope of the English 
that his daughter Mary, who was married to 
William of Orange, would succeed to the crown 
was cut off and the prospect that the despotic 
Catholic king would be succeeded by a Protestant 
prince and princess was removed. An invitation 
was sent to William of Orange to take possession 
of the government, and was accepted by Wil- 
liam, who at once began gathering his army and 
fleet for the enterprise. He landed in 1688, and 
James took refuge in flight to France, where he 
was generously welcomed by Louis XIV. James 
died in 1701 at the castle of St. Germain, which 
had been given to him as a refuge by the French 
king. 

452. Literature of the Restoration. — The reigns 
of Charles II. and James II. are marked as the 
most corrupt and immoral period in the history 
of English society, and the literature of the period 
reflects the low standard of morals that pre- 
vailed. Especially among the higher classes 
profligacy and immorality were prevalent, and 
the example was set by. the kings themselves. 



THE ERA OF THE POLITICAL REVOLUTION $47 

The age of the restored Stuarts represents the re- 
action after the overstern severity of Puritanism, 
and the literature, poems, and dramas faithfully 
reflect the change," so that to the playwrights' of 
the period is given the name of " the corrupt 
dramatists," because of the brutality and in- 
decency of their plays. 

453. William and Mary (1 689-1 702). — In Janu- 
ary, 1689, the crown of England was settled upon 
William of Orange (William III.) and Mary, 
daughter of James II. James attempted to re- 
store himself to power and invaded Ireland, but 
was defeated at the battle of the Boyne, 1690. 
William succeeded in forming an alliance with 
various European powers against the king of 
France, the war being concluded in 1697 by the 
Peace of Ryswick. 

Queen Mary died in 1694, and from that time 
until his death, in 1702, William reigned alone. 
The principal reason which had caused William 
to accept the invitation to assume the crown of 
England was his desire to turn the resources of 
England against France, and when, in 1701, 
Louis XIV. recognised the son of James II. 
known as the "Pretender," as the rightful king 
of England, he began active preparations for a 
campaign against France, in which he was 
heartily supported by the English people, as they 
were inflamed to anger by the aid Louis had given 
to James II. in his attempts to regain the Eng- 
lish throne. In the midst of these preparations 



548 MODERN HISTORY 

William was mortally hurt by a fall from his 
horse, and died in 1702, leaving no children, 
Mary's sister Anne, married to Prince George of 
Denmark, succeeding to the crown. 

The most important law enacted during the 
reign of William and Mary was the so-called ' ' Bill 
of Rights," by which the long dispute between 
the king and Parliament was settled in favour of 
the latter. The act declares that the kings of 
England derive their right and title to rule from 
the will of the people, and that Parliament has 
the power to depose any king, to exclude his 
heirs from the throne, and to settle the crown in 
another family. The Bill of Rights destroys the 
theory that the kings rule by "divine right," and 
that they are above human control. The bill 
further provides that no Catholic, or person 
married with a Catholic, can possess the crown 
of England, and since 1688 no Catholic has sat 
upon the English throne. The other portion 
of the bill defines the power of Parliament 
in controlling the levy of taxes, freedom of 
debate, and denies the dispensing power of the 
crown. 

454. Queen Anne. — Queen Anne reigned from 
1702 until 1 7 14. During her reign England and 
Scotland were united into a single kingdom, un- 
der the name of Great Britain, and from this 
time both countries were represented by one Par- 
liament. The War of the Spanish Succession 
lasted throughout her reign and was ended by the 



THE ERA OF THE POLITICAL REVOLUTION 549 

treaties of Utrecht, 17 13, and Rastadt, 17 14, at 
the accession of Archduke Charles of Austria to 
the imperial throne. In 17 14 Queen Anne died, 
leaving no heirs, and the crown fell to the eldest 
son of Sophia of Hanover, George, who was a 
grandchild of James I. 

455. Advance of Popular Government. — George 
I., the new Hanoverian king, who reigned from 
17 14 until 1727, chose his advisers from among 
the Whigs, and they remained in power through- 
out his reign. Parliament acquired complete con- 
trol of the state, and the influence of the king 
was further reduced by the institution of the so- 
called ' ' cabinet government . ' ' Although the king 
named his ministers, none would accept the ap- 
pointment unless they were supported by a 
majority in the Commons, and thus Parliament 
practically named the cabinet of the king. With 
this feature, and party rule, added to the annual 
voting of supplies, the English constitution' 
reached the character which distinguishes it 
to-day. 

456. Old French and Indian War; the American 
Colonies. — The Old French and Indian War, 
from 1755 to 1763 (merged in the so-called Seven 
Years' War), was to decide whether America and 
India were to be English or French. At first the 
French were victorious, but in 1757 Pitt, called 
"the Great Commoner," came into power in 
England, and organised fleets and armies with 
such ability that victory finally fell to England. 



550 MODERN HISTORY 

The war in America was brought to a close by 
the victory of Wolfe over Montcalm, at Quebec, 
and in India Lord Give established the power of 
England. By the treaty of Paris, in 1763, Eng- 
land gained Canada, and all other possessions of 
France east of the Mississippi, excepting New 
Orleans. 

In 1765 Parliament imposed a tax upon the 
American colonies. This was withdrawn when 
it became known that the act had aroused wide- 
spread discontent, because the colonies were not 
represented in Parliament, but the Parliament 
still maintained the right to tax the colonies. 
This view was resented by the Americans, and 
when the English resorted to military force, the 
Americans answered by declaring their independ- 
ence, in 1776. After the surrender at Yorktown, 
in 1 781, negotiations were begun, and by the 
peace of Versailles, in 1783, the independence of 
the American colonies was recognised. 

457. Ireland. — The success of the Americans 
led the Irish to demand for themselves a greater 
measure of freedom. Henry Grattan drew up a 
Declaration of Rights, demanding that the in- 
dependence of the Irish Parliament be acknow- 
ledged. The English feared a revolt, and in 1782 
Irish legislative independence was established. 
However, this independence was lost again after 
the massacres of 1799, and in 1800 the "Act of 
Union" incorporated the Irish Parliament with 
the British Parliament in London. 



THE ERA OF THE POLITICAL REVOLUTION 55 1 
D — EARLY POLITICAL INSTITUTIONS OF ENGLAND 

458. Development of British Political Institutions. 

— While all human institutions are the result 
of development, yet the British government in 
its entire structure, both general and local, is 
that in which the processes of growth and evolu- 
tion have gone on most steadily and with least 
apparent interruption from revolutions, or from 
the imposition of artificial systems. The British 
government has, of course, the greatest interest 
for citizens of the United States because of its 
close relation to our own government. 

459. Primitive Teutonic Institutions. — Among the 
Teutons kinship was the foundation of social 
organisation, and the family was the unit of 
government. The tribes were settled in villages, 
which administered their own government, and 
there was no national organisation, except in 
time of war. The land belonging to a tribe was 
not property of its individual members, but was 
property of the community, and was assigned to 
the freemen of the tribe for cultivation for their 
individual benefit. The magisterial powers rested 
with chiefs elected in the village meeting, the 
latter body exercising the judicial authority. In 
war all freemen had a vote in regard to the dis- 
tribution of the spoils, and thereby held in check 
their military leaders. 

After Rome had withdrawn her legions from 
England, in the fifth century, because their 



552 MODERN HISTORY 

strength was needed in the contests with Alaric 
and Attila, the Saxons were induced to enter 
England to assist the Britons in their defence 
against the attacks of their northern neighbours, 
the Picts and Scots, and the untamed tribes of 
Wales. This step proved a very unwise one for 
the Britons, as the Teutons, having been refused 
the grants of lands promised by the Britons, 
established themselves firmly on English soil. 

In the various Teutonic kingdoms which existed 
in the transitional period of the development of 
the English nation the forms of "government 
which were introduced were strictly Teutonic, 
being reproductions of the institutions of their 
German homes. While the Romans had un- 
doubtedly left behind them traces of their high 
culture and art, and while the Britons, through 
their contact with the Romans, may have ab- 
sorbed some features of the Roman system, there 
was no resemblance in the forms of government 
established and developed by the Teutonic im- 
migrants to Roman institutions, the Teutonic 
politics being entirely devoid of the impersonal 
character of the Roman system, which sub- 
ordinated the citizen to the state only, while 
personal allegiance formed the potent element in 
the Teutonic governmental system. 

460. Early English Institutions. — As had been 
the case in Gaul, the military leaders of the 
Angles and Saxons were transformed into kings, 
the interest of order and discipline demanding 



THE ERA OF THE POLITICAL REVOLUTION 553 

this substitution during the organised movements 
of the period of conquests, but this transforma- 
tion did not materially affect the internal organ- 
isation of the tribes, and government as well as 
justice continued to be administered by the. 
village meetings. Communities combined into 
so-called "Hundreds," and combinations of such 
Hundreds undoubtedly constituted the many 
small kingdoms of early England. These Hun- 
dreds were judicial rather than administrative 
districts, and they sent their representatives to 
the meetings, the "Hundred-moot," and there 
was also the "Folk-moot," or assembly of the 
freemen. 

The king's power was gradually developed from 
that of a mere patriarchal president to a real 
sovereignty, and this power found the means for 
further growth in the feudal .system, which gave 
to the kings the opportunity of bringing the 
barons of the land into more literal subordination. 
At first there had been a General Council, which 
constituted an advisory board to the king in 
the consideration of the common interests, and 
limited the king's prerogative by the exercise 
of the old-time authority which it had possessed 
before the kingly office had been established. 
After England had been made a single kingdom 
the king was elected by the Witena-gemot, or 
the Council of the Wise, and this council also 
acted as a participant in the exercise of legislative 
and judicial functions. 



554 MODERN HISTORY 

With the growth of the king's power, the in- 
fluence of the council decreased and the feudal 
system rounded out the king's sovereignty so that 
the Great Council, which was a new form of the 
Mycel-gemot, or of the combined moots of all 
the shires, retained merely formal rights, although 
the king received its advice and laws were en- 
acted with its consent. Before the unification of 
the many small English kingdoms the General 
Council, of which the king was president, con- 
stituted an advisory body to the king. With the 
formation of a single kingdom the General Council 
lost much of its importance and influence, and, as 
the small kingdoms now became mere subdivisions 
of the state, the former councils assumed the 
character of County Courts, of which the sheriff 
was president, as representative of the king. In 
the new kingdom the Witena-gemot, or Assembly 
of the Wise, became the national council, taking 
upon itself the functions exercised in the former 
small kingdoms by the general councils. It had 
a limited membership, and was composed of the 
sheriffs, the ealdormen, bishops, and chief persons 
of the king's household. It elected the king, par- 
ticipated with him in the making of appoint- 
ments, the formulation of laws, and the imposition 
of taxes, and it also constituted the Supreme 
Court of the kingdom. Another national coun- 
cil was the Mycel-gemot, which consisted of the 
combined moots of all the shires. 

461. The Great Council. — The Great Council of 






THE ERA OF THE POLITICAL REVOLUTION 555 

the Norman kings was a new form of the Mycel- 
gemot, and it was practically the assembly of the 
principal feudal lords of the kingdom, being com- 
posed of the actual or theoretical holders of fiefs, 
archbishops, bishops, and abbots, the clergy be- 
ing also admitted only as members of the feudal 
hierarchy, or holders of lands granted to them by 
the king as fiefs. The Great Council met three 
times each year, and its membership varied in 
numbers as well as in persons. 

462. The Permanent Council. — From its mem- 
bers was selected the Permanent Council, a body 
of state officers who were retained by the king 
permanently in an advisory capacity. As they 
constituted a permanent board, the power of this 
council grew in time to be superior to that of the 
Great Council itself, it being the agent of the king 
in the exercise of administrative, legislative, and 
judicial functions. 

In course of time it was itself superseded in 
power by the Privy Council, the still more ex- 
clusive board of councillors to the king. 

463. Development of Parliament. — The Parlia- 
ment was developed out of the Great Council. 
At first the latter had consisted of the greater 
feudal lords and churchmen only. After the re- 
volt of the barons against King John, the grant 
of Magna Charta was made at Runnymede, in 
121 5, by which the abuses of the king's power 
as feudal superior were to be abated, and vari- 
ous constitutional reforms instituted. In 1265 a 



556 MODERN HISTORY 

great change was brought about in the form of 
the English National Assembly, the principle of 
representation being introduced, the special per- 
sonal summons to meet in Parliament being ad- 
dressed to the nobles and the higher clergy, and the 
sheriffs of the different shires being directed to re- 
turn two knights as representatives of the shires, 
and two burgesses as representatives of the cities. 

The Parliament as constituted after this change 
had been effected was divided shortly into two 
separate houses, the House of Lords and the 
House of Commons. The lower clergy were 
entirely left out, meeting separately as the 
"Convocation," for the management of purely 
ecclesiastical affairs only. 

The House of Lords was composed of the lords, 
archbishops, and abbots, and the House of Com- 
mons of lesser knights, who were not summoned 
by special personal summons, and the commons 
from the towns. 

464. The Cabinet. — The Cabinet was developed 
out of the Permanent Council and the Privy 
Council. The Permanent Council at first prac- 
tically had been a committee of the Great Council, 
chosen by the king as his permanent advisory 
board. Out of the Permanent Council there was 
selected a still smaller board of confidential ad- 
visers, the Privy Council, which in time ab- 
sorbed the chief administrative powers, and the 
Cabinet was evolved out of this board by suc- 
cessive steps. 



THE ERA OF THE POLITICAL REVOLUTION 557 

During the first period members of the Privy 
Council were drawn by the king for consultation 
or confidential advice, and this was followed by 
the next step, which gave to the members of this 
inner circle the title of Cabinet, but no recognised 
official status. Later the Cabinet became a dis- 
tinct political body, representative of the domi- 
nant party in the state, and finally, in the latter 
part of the eighteenth century, the Cabinet was 
developed into the definite political shape as it is 
constituted to-day. 

E — Russia 

465. Early Russian History. — The Russian peo- 
ple first appear in history in the ninth century, 
and were united in a state by the Norseman 
Rurik. The royal line established by Rurik ruled 
in Russia for over seven hundred years. In the 
thirteenth century Russia was overrun by the 
Mongols, and the foreign yoke was not cast off 
until 1480, under Ivan III., known as "the 
Great." With his successor, Ivan the Terrible, 
commences the ambition of the Russian rulers 
to gain a firm foothold on the Baltic Sea, but it 
was not until Peter the Great came to the throne 
that this ambition was realised. 

At the beginning of the seventeenth century 
the House of Romanoff succeeded to the throne, 
the House of Rurik having come to an end in 
the sixteenth century. Under the early Roman- 
offs the influence of Russia was greatly increased, 



558 MODERN HISTORY 

especially by the acquisition of Siberia, which 
was accomplished by the enterprise of the Russian 
traders and adventurers, who annexed territory 
after territory in the name of the czar. Not- 
withstanding the large territory which was under 
the control of the Russian rulers before the 
accession of Peter the Great, Russia remained 
an inland state, with no outlet to the sea, pressed 
on all sides by great powers, Persia, Turkey, 
Poland, and Sweden. It remained for Peter the 
Great (1682-1725) to extend his empire to the 
seas, and to rid himself of the supervision of 
the Patriarch, who had been the head of the 
Church, and of the insolence of his bodyguard, 
the Strelitzes. 

466. Peter the Great. — After the conquest of 
Azov, in 1696, which gained for Peter the first 
harbour on the south, Peter started on a trip 
through Europe, especially Germany, Holland, 
and England, for the purpose of gaining infor- 
mation. On this trip he was accompanied by a 
large suite of fellow-students, and the seal which 
he had struck for the voyage best describes his 
plans, as it read, "I am a learner." At Zaan- 
dam, in Holland, he hired out as a common ship- 
carpenter, while he also attended surgical lectures, 
visited paper-mills, flour-mills, examined printing 
presses, factories, and, in short, informed himself 
on every industry and art that he believed might 
be of advantage to his country. From Holland 
Peter went to England, where he was received 



THE ERA OF THE POLITICAL REVOLUTION 5 $9 

cordially by King William III., who presented 
him with a yacht, fully armed, and got up a sham 
sea-fight for his edification. From England Peter 
returned to Holland, and thence went to Vienna, 
as it was his intention to visit Italy. At Vienna 
he heard that his bodyguard, the Strelitzes, had 
revolted, and he set out post-haste for home. 

Arriving, he established order, and took terri- 
ble revenge on the Strelitzes, over one thousand 
of whom were executed, rumour reporting that 
Peter himself played the headsman, and the rest 
were dismissed and a new army was organised, 
patterned after the armies of the West. Now 
commenced Peter's reforms, and they were con- 
tinued with indomitable energy. Everything 
national had to give way to Western ideas. The 
national dress was discarded, and also the habit 
of wearing long beards. After the death of the 
Patriarch in 1700, Peter appointed a synod, to 
which he assigned the functions of the primate, 
he himself being in control, and thus he made 
himself the head of the Church as well as of the 
State. His other reforms were numerous. He 
built roads and canals, encouraged industry and 
commerce, invited foreign colonists and mechanics, 
and erected common schools. Peter did not live 
to gather the fruit of these vast civilising labours, 
but his efforts to reorganise the army and to 
create a fleet met with great success. 

467. Peter and Charles XII. — Azov, on the Black 
Sea, was worth very little to Peter, so long as 



560 MODERN HISTORY 

the Turks held the Dardanelles. He therefore 
prepared to wrest the possessions of Sweden on 
the Baltic from the hands of Charles XII., who, 
a boy of fifteen years, in 1697 had come to the 
throne of Sweden. Because of his youth, he 
appeared to Peter an easy victim, and a league 
was formed against him by Poland, Denmark, and 
Russia, who desired to regain lost territories. 
Charles XII. displayed a marked ability for mili- 
tary affairs, and before the allies were ready to be- 
gin the campaign he invaded Denmark, and in a 
very short time the Danish king was compelled 
to sue for peace. Charles then turned against the 
Russians, and with an army less than half the 
size of the Russian, he inflicted upon the Russians 
an ignominious defeat at Narva, in 1700. The 
Russians fell back, and Charles now turned 
against the King of Poland to punish him for the 
part he had taken in the conspiracy. After the 
defeat of the Polish king, Charles still was not 
satisfied and again turned his arms against 
Russia, and in 1708 marched against Moscow. 
The hardships of the march and the severe 
climate reduced his forces, and his army' was 
defeated in 1709 at Pultowa, he himself seeking 
refuge in flight, escaping with a few soldiers to 
Turkey. After a stay of five years Charles re- 
turned to Sweden, where he was shortly after- 
wards killed at the siege of Frederickshall, in 
Norway (17 18). Peter, in the meantime, had to 
contend with much opposition because of his re- 



THE ERA OF THE POLITICAL REVOLUTION $6 1 

formatory measures, and even his son Alexis was 
leaning toward the reactionists. Peter tried to 
win his son over to his own side, but failed, and, 
in order to save his life-work from being undone 
by his successor, he had Alexis imprisoned, and, 
as he remained stubborn, he was executed in 
17 18. After the death of Peter the Great, in 
1725, the government fell into the hands of in- 
competent and dissolute czarinas, and for a time 
it seemed that Russia would return to her former 
barbaric condition. 

468. Catherine the Great (1762-1796). — That 
such was not the case must be attributed to the 
reign of Catherine II., called the Great, who, by 
birth a German princess, and therefore in favour 
of Western civilisation, accepted the traditions of 
the reign of Peter the Great, and also had the 
power and ability to carry out her plans. She 
opened the country to Western influence even 
more widely than Peter had done, improved the 
administration of the empire, introduced a new 
code of laws, and encouraged art and literature. 
She participated in the partition of Poland and 
in two wars defeated Turkey, extending the 
southern boundary of the empire along the Black 
Sea to the Dniester. At her death, in 1796, 
Russia occupied the position of the first power of 
the North, and of one of the foremost powers of 
Europe. 

Catherine, although a woman of great ability, 

was very profligate and wholly unscrupulous, and 
36 



562 MODERN HISTORY 

her life is stained with crime and immorality. 
She gained the throne by the murder of her hus- 
band, Peter III., whom she had imprisoned and 
then strangled, with the assistance of her para- 
mour Orloff . 

F — Prussia 

469. Rise of the Power of Prussia; Frederick 
William, the Great Elector. — The possessions of 
the electors of Brandenburg were increased in the 
beginning of the seventeenth century by the ac- 
quisition of the duchy of Prussia, and the elec- 
torate was steadily growing in prominence. Still, 
during the Thirty Years' War, the Elector George 
William, because of his weakness and lack of 
courage, which prevented him from declaring for 
either the Swedes or the emperor, failed to be- 
come a factor in the struggle, and his lands were 
despoiled by the armies of both sides. His son, 
Frederick William, known as the Great Elector, 
adopted a vigorous policy, which acquired a 
prominent position in politics for the state, so 
that at the signing of the peace of Westphalia, 
in 1648, he was able to secure additional terri- 
tory, thus greatly enhancing his power among the 
German princes. The Great Elector ruled for 
nearly half a century, 1 640-1 688, and during his 
rule laid the foundation of the military power of 
Prussia by the formation of a standing army. 
He merged the governments of the separate 
territories into one, thus creating a monarchy of 



THE ERA OF THE POLITICAL REVOLUTION 563 

which he was the head. He was a champion of 
religious toleration, and upon his invitation many 
of the Huguenots, who had been driven out of 
France by the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, 
settled in his lands. 

The reign of the successor of the Great Elector, 
his son Frederick III., is memorable only because 
of his acquisition of the title of King of Prussia, 
which was granted to him by the Emperor 
Leopold, who thus invested with royal dignity 
the rival house of the Hohenzollerns, and from 
this event dates the steady rise in power and 
influence of the Prussian kings, who gradually 
assumed the control of the affairs of the German 
race in Europe. 

470. Frederick William I. (17 13- 1740). — Freder- 
erick William I. greatly improved the organisation 
of the standing army, which he moulded into a 
very efficient fighting machine, the officers of 
which were appointed with regard to merit only. 
He was especially fond of big soldiers, and main- 
tained a regiment of the biggest men he could 
find, the so-called "Potsdam Giants." He con- 
tinued the work begun by the Great Elector in 
centralising the civil administration and estab- 
lished the Prussian bureaucracy, which to this 
day is noted for its efficiency, the vast amount 
of "red tape" notwithstanding. By thrift and 
economy he increased the army to eighty thousand 
men, a number equal to those maintained by such 
powers as France and Austria, and under his rule 



564 MODERN HISTORY 

the financial condition of the country was much 
improved. 

471. Frederick the Great (1740-1786). — The son 
of Frederick William I., Frederick II., " the 
Great," in his youth was self-willed and careless, 
and when his father tried to coerce him he at- 
tempted to run away. The plot was revealed at 
the last moment, and his father, wild with rage, 
had him imprisoned, and even meditated upon 
his execution for desertion. After his release from 
prison he received a very severe education, which, 
although it may be said that it was partly forced 
upon him, was no doubt of great benefit to him, 
after he had succeeded to the throne of his father. 
He spent the last years before his father's death 
in retirement, devoting himself largely to arts 
and literature, and his great military and politi- 
cal achievements were totally unexpected of him 
because of his leaning to the pursuit of peaceful 
arts, especially music. The two great wars of his 
reign were the War of the Austrian Succession, 
1740-1748, and the Seven Years' War, 1756- 
1763. Before Emperor Charles VI. died, he had 
his daughter, Maria Theresa, appointed as his suc- 
cessor, and had bound the leading powers by an 
agreement (called the Pragmatic Sanction) to 
acknowledge her as rightful heir of his Austrian 
possessions. Soon after his death a number of 
sovereigns claimed various parts of the Austrian 
dominions, Frederick the Great among them, 
laying claim to Silesia, which he invaded in 1740. 



THE ERA OF THE POLITICAL REVOLUTION 565 

The war lasted until 174S, with an interval of 
two years between the first and second Silesian 
wars, as they are known in Germany. The 
peace signed at Aix-la-Chapelle (Aachen) left 
Silesia in the hands of Frederick the Great. From 
that time Austria meditated revenge. Alliances 
were entered into with various European powers, 
especially France, Sweden, and Russia, and 
Frederick saw that his salvation lay in quick 
action. He therefore did not await the declara- 
tion of war, but invaded and occupied Saxony, 
and attacked Bohemia in 1756. While marching 
upon the capital a part of his army was defeated 
at Kolin, and he was forced to retreat to Saxony, 
while his enemies were gathering on all sides, and 
the Austrians occupying Silesia. While his friends 
were giving up his cause as lost, Frederick did 
not lose heart, and gained a number of quick 
victories. At Rossbach, Leuthen, and Zorndorf 
he defeated the armies of France, Austria, and 
Russia. In 1759 his resources were greatly weak- 
ening, the English monarch refusing to pay the 
annual subsidy which had aided him in main- 
taining his army during the long struggle ; but in 
1762 Peter III. succeeded to the throne of Russia 
and he not only withdrew his army, but also 
offered to enter into an alliance with Frederick. 
When Peter III. was replaced by- Catherine II. 
she allowed the peace to stand, although the 
alliance was not materialised. The Swedes never 
made a vigorous effort in the campaign, and thus 



566 MODERN HISTORY 

only Austria remained in arms against Prussia. 
Maria Theresa saw clearly that she could not 
accomplish alone what she had failed to do with 
the aid of her allies, and a peace was negotiated 
at Hubertsburg, which terminated the war in 
1763, and made the cession of Silesia to Prussia 
final. 

Frederick the Great made Prussia the equal of 
Austria, and created the rivalry for the control 
of Germany which was not ended until 1866, 
when Germany gained a final victory, excluding 
Austria from interference in her affairs. During 
his reign he enacted many reforms, improved the 
government, encouraged industry and colonisa- 
tion, drained the great swamps along the Oder, 
cut canals, and by his wise administration won 
the country back to prosperity after the great 
strain which the long wars had laid upon it. 

G — The French Revolution 

472. Causes of the French Revolution. — The chief 
causes of the French Revolution were: (1) The 
absolute government of the Bourbons, who abused 
the privileges of royalty and oppressed the peo- 
ple. The life of no person in France was safe, 
as any one could be imprisoned without even 
knowing the offence with which he was charged. 
(2) The unequal taxation, which fell most 
heavily upon the common people, the nobles, who 
owned a large part of the land, and the clergy, 
who also possessed immense wealth, being al- 



THE ERA OF THE POLITICAL REVOLUTION 567 

most entirely exempt from taxation. (3) The 
miserable condition of the labouring class and the 
peasantry, whom unjust regulations and taxation 
kept in a state of abject poverty. (4) The in- 
tellectual revolt, which was universal in the 
eighteenth century, had its centre in France, and 
the theories of Voltaire and Rousseau contributed 
much to the increasing demand for reform, and 
stirred up a passion for innovation and change. 
(5) Lastly, the success of the American colonies 
in establishing their independence awakened in 
the French people the desire to obtain the rights 
and privileges which were denied them. 

The Bastile was regarded by the people as the 
emblem of despotism. During the excitement 
following the opening of the session of the National 
Assembly the rumour spread that the guns of the 
old prison were trained on the city. This caused 
an outbreak, and the mob at once proceeded to 
lay a siege to the prison, which was captured, and 
the walls razed to the ground. The fall of the 
Bastile was celebrated throughout France as the 
end of tyranny, and the day on which it occurred, 
July 14th (1789), has been made the national 
holiday. 

The report of certain actions of some young 
nobles at Versailles, especially their trampling 
upon the tri-coloured national cockades and 
the substitution of white cockades, the emblem 
of the Bourbons, on the occasion of the arrival 
of some troops, also the rumour concerning the 



568 MODERN HISTORY 

king's intended flight to Metz and of plots against 
the national eause, fed the flame of excitement 
among the Paris mob. When supplies ran short 
and hunger was added to the sufferings of the 
poorer classes, their excitement grew into a 
savage frenzy, which could not be subdued by 
counsels of moderation. A desperate mob, mostly 
women, gathered in the streets of Paris on the 
5th of October, and started out to Versailles to 
demand from the king relief of their sufferings. 
The National Guards, infected with the spirit of 
the moment, forced their commander, Lafayette, 
to lead them in the same direction. Arriving at 
Versailles, the mob encamped in the streets for 
the night. On the following morning they broke 
into the palace, and, killing two of the guards, 
battered down the doors and forced their way 
into the apartments of the queen, who barely 
escaped with her life into the chambers of the 
king. At this time Lafayette arrived with the 
Guards, and that alone prevented the massacre of 
the entire royal family. The king was forced to 
yield to the demand of the people to return with 
them to Paris, his arrival there being called the 
"Joyous Entry" of October 6th. The royal 
family was conducted to the Palace of the Tuileries 
where the king was held as a sort of hostage for 
the good conduct of the nobles, while the National 
Assembly was preparing a new constitution. 

473. The Flight of the King. — From October 
6th the king was virtually a prisoner of the 



THE ERA OF THE POLITICAL REVOLUTION 569 

populace, and had lost all influence. While the 
Assembly was drawing up a new constitution, 
Mirabeau, the great statesman of the Revolution, 
had laboured strongly to preserve the power of 
the king, but met with little appreciation, even 
the king being distrustful, and when he died the 
king realised that any change in his favour 
among the legislators could not be expected. 
The nobles, most of whom had emigrated 
beyond the frontier, did not dare to take any 
hostile step, for fear of endangering the lives 
of the royal family, and the king finally came to 
the conclusion that his safety lay in flight. Once 
on the border of France he could put himself at 
the head of the nobles, and could then, with 
foreign aid, advance and crush the Revolution. 
The flight of the king was carefully planned, and 
the entire family escaped from the Tuileries and 
started in post-chaises toward the frontier. His 
Bourbon features betrayed the king when only 
one hour's distance from safety, and the entire 
party was held up and carried back to Paris. 

474. The Three Parties. — The Legislative As- 
sembly was divided into three parties: the 
Constitutionalists, the Girondists, and the Mount- 
ainists. The Constitutionalists were in favour of 
a limited monarchy and supported the new con- 
stitution. The Girondists wanted a republic, 
such as the American colonists had established. 
The Mountainists, who received their name from 
their high seats in the Assembly, were radical 



570 MODERN HISTORY 

republicans. Their leaders were Marat, Danton, 
and Robespierre. Many of the Mountainists were 
members of the Jacobins and the Cordeliers, the 
purpose of these clubs being the constant keeping 
of a watch for conspiracies of the royalists and 
agitation in favour of the Revolution. 

475. The Republic. — In April, 1792, the Legis- 
lative Assembly declared war against Austria and 
Prussia. After the French generals had suc- 
ceeded in inflicting a crushing defeat upon the 
armies of the "Old Monarchies," at Valmy (Sep- 
tember 20, 1792) the Legislative Assembly came 
to an end. In the National Convention which 
followed there were no monarchists, all members 
being republicans, and they were divided into two 
parties, Girondists and Mountainists. The first 
act of the National Convention after assembling, 
September 22, 1792, was to declare the monarchy 
abolished and to proclaim the Republic. The 
titles of the nobility were abolished, and every- 
body, be his station high or low, was addressed 
plainly as "citizen." The next work the Con- 
vention took up was the trial of the king. Louis 
XVI., now the citizen Louis Capet, was brought 
before the bar of the Convention, and although the 
Girondists tried to save the life of the monarch, 
he was found guilty of having conspired with the 
enemies of France, of having opposed the will of 
the people, and of having caused the massacre 
of the Swiss guards on August 10th, and was 
sentenced to death. And, although the worst that 



THE ERA OF THE POLITICAL REVOLUTION 571 

can be said of him is that he lacked intelligence 
and energy, no hand was raised to save him, and 
he was executed on January 21, 1793. 

476. The Reign of Terror. — The period from 
June, 1793, to July, 1794, well deserves the name 
of the Reign of Terror. After the fall of the 
Girondists the control of affairs had fallen into 
the hands of the Mountainists, and the supreme 
power was vested in a so-called Committee of 
Safety, of which Marat was president, with both 
Danton and Robespierre as members. All aris- 
tocrats, suspected persons, and those accused of 
lukewarmness in the cause of liberty were with- 
out mercy ordered to the guillotine. Many were 
executed because they were wealthy, and still 
others because they had in some way incurred the 
displeasure of the dictators. At first legal forms 
were adhered to, but later the prisoners were 
haled before the court in companies, and with the 
reading of their names the trial came to an end, 
so far as the person was concerned. In October, 
1793, Marie Antoinette was brought before the 
tribunal on a number of trumped-up charges, 
and was condemned to death and executed. Of 
her two children, the princess was released in 
1795, while the Dauphin died under the inhuman 
treatment of his jailers. Two weeks after the 
execution of the queen, twenty-one leaders of the 
Girondists, who had been imprisoned, ended 
their lives under the knife of the guillotine, and 
day after day the number of the victims was 



572 MODERN HISTORY 

increasing. Among the most notable persons who 
fell during the Reign of Terror were the duke of 
Orleans, who, however, richly merited his fate, 
having voted for the death of the king, and 
the celebrated Madame Roland. The terror ex- 
tended to the provinces, where revolts had broken 
out against the Mountainists. The revolts were 
scattered attempts, and were crushed by the 
armies of the Convention. Of the revolting 
cities, Lyons was taken and destroyed, Toulon 
was captured, chiefly through the skill of a young 
officer of artillery (Napoleon Bonaparte) , and the 
insurgents in the Vendee were subdued by meas- 
ures most cruel. The guillotine seemed not 
speedy enough in the meting out of punishment 
to the insurgents, and other modes of inflicting 
the death penalty were invented, to which were 
given the names of "Republican Baptisms," 
"Republican Marriages," and "Battues" (see 
Sec. 481). Then came disintegration in the ranks 
of the revolutionists and they turned their sav- 
age fury against each other, just as Mirabeau 
in a moment of prophetic sight had predicted 
that they, like Saturn, would devour their own 
offspring. 

477. Marat. — Marat styled himself "the friend 
of the people." His thirst for blood has asso- 
ciated his name with such as Caligula and Nero. 
After his election to the Convention he was ac- 
cused by the Girondists of being unfaithful to 
the interests of the Republic, but the tribunal ac- 



THE ERA OF THE POLITICAL REVOLUTION 573 

quitted him. With Danton and Robespierre he 
then overthrew the Girondists, in June, 1793, 
from which date begins the Reign of Terror. 
Some of the Girondists escaped and excited an 
insurrection in the provinces, and Marat was the 
chief instigator of the cruel measures adopted in 
the subjugation of the insurgents. Before the 
Reign of Terror was even well under way, Marat 
was stabbed to death while sitting in the bath, by 
Charlotte Corday, a young girl from Normandy, 
who believed it her duty to rid the country of the 
monster. 

478. Changes in the Laws. — Among the many 
sweeping changes instituted by the revolutionists 
were the new system of weights and measures 
and a new mode of reckoning time. Each month 
was divided into three periods of ten days each, 
called decades, and each day was divided into 
ten parts. Each month was given a name ex- 
pressive of its character. 

The atheists in the Convention next proposed 
the abolition of Christianity, but the Convention 
feared that many who still adhered to the Church 
would be alienated by such an act, and resolved 
that the matters of creed should be left to the 
decision of the people themselves. The Ex- 
tremists then persuaded the Bishop of Paris to 
lay down the insignia of his office, and his exam- 
ple was followed by many of the clergy through- 
out the country. The churches were closed, the 
images of Christ torn down, and in their places 



574 MODERN HISTORY 

were put the busts of Marat and other patriots. 
The culmination of this madness was the institu- 
tion of the worship of reason, and the churches 
were converted into temples of the new creed. 
After the fall of Hebert and Danton, Robespierre 
again gave to the country a new religion and in- 
stituted the worship of the Supreme Being. 

479. Fall of Hebert and Danton. — Hebert was 
an atheist and anarchist who wanted to reform 
society upon communism and atheism. Danton, 
although he had himself been a member of the 
Committee of Public Safety, had adopted more 
conservative ideas and was condemning the ex- 
treme cruelty of that body. Robespierre had 
no sympathy with the ideas of either Hebert or 
Danton, and in order to gain power for himself 
he resolved to crush them both. Hebert was 
accused first of exciting an insurrection against 
the Convention, was found guilty, and executed, 
Danton and his adherents aiding in the pro- 
ceedings. Hebert out of the way, Robespierre at 
once set about to destroy Danton, and Danton 's 
prominent public services notwithstanding, he 
succeeded in having him arrested, tried, and 
executed only ten days after the death of Hebert. 
The ambition of Robespierre was now gratified. 
He was supreme. But very soon he was to meet 
the same fate, as Danton had predicted. 

480. Robespierre. — Robespierre was well edu- 
cated, a lawyer, and in private life was always 
upright, simple, and charitable. He was a fanatical 



THE ERA OF THE POLITICAL REVOLUTION 575 

follower of Rousseau, and this fanaticism was 
mainly responsible for his gaining of supporters 
after he had been elected a member of the States- 
General. He gradually rose in popularity and 
influence, and had he possessed political capacity 
he would have attained the position which it was 
rumoured he was seeking, namely, that of dictator. 
His persuasion of the Convention to abolish the 
worship of reason and to adopt the new religion 
of the Supreme Being showed that he governed 
the Jacobins, the Convention, and the Committee 
of Safety as well. However, as soon as the decree 
was passed and the new religion accepted he used 
his influence in divesting the Revolutionary 
Tribunal of all the pretence hitherto maintained 
as to legal forms, and the fact that now no wit- 
nesses were necessary to bring about a verdict of 
guilty made the proceedings of that body mock- 
ery indeed. Executions began at wholesale, the 
number of victims in six weeks almost reaching 
the terrible figure of thirteen hundred. Reaction 
was inevitable. The constant dread of death be- 
came intolerable, and faster than he had gained 
it Robespierre was losing his popularity, while his 
opponents were growing in numbers and influence. 
People came to look upon the horrors of the 
daily executions as cruel and unnecessary; they 
turned from the guillotine with pity even, show- 
ing that the better feelings were gaining the 
upper hand over the brutal passions. While he 
still had a great many followers who would have 



576 MODERN HISTORY 

enabled him to anticipate his enemies, Robespierre 
remained inactive, and even retired for weeks 
from the Convention. When at last he returned, 
he declared that the Reign of Terror ought to be 
ended, and that certain deputies, who had ex- 
ceeded their powers and incited a counter-revo- 
lution, ought to be arrested; his speech met with 
outspoken opposition, and the Convention ordered 
his arrest. He was rescued from prison by the 
Jacobins and a mob, but now the Convention 
called the National Guards to protect the repre- 
sentatives of the nation, and Robespierre and 
his followers were declared outlawed. Robes- 
pierre was re-arrested, after he had inflicted a 
severe wound upon himself in an attempt to 
commit suicide. The next day he was sent to 
the guillotine with many of his followers (July 27, 

i794)- 

481. Effects of the Revolution outside of Paris. 

— After the execution of the king, the peasantry 

in various parts of the country were aroused to 

revolt, and especially the Chouans (insurgents of 

Britanny) and the Vendeans maintained a guerilla 

warfare against the forces of the Convention. In 

the beginning of the Reign of Terror some of the 

Girondists, who had escaped from Paris, were the 

cause of uprisings of several cities, among others 

Lyons and Toulon. Lyons was razed to the 

ground and a pillar erected upon which was the 

legend: "Lyons resisted liberty — Lyons is no 

more." Toulon was taken, and the insurrection 



THE ERA OF THE POLITICAL REVOLUTION 577 

in the Vendee was crushed. In these places the 
insurgents were executed by the hundreds, and 
the guillotine being considered far too slow for 
the work the people were massed on old vessels, 
which were scuttled in the middle of the river 
("Republican Baptism"). Numbers of women, 
and even children, were among the victims. If 
this method was not practicable, the unfortunates 
were massed in the public squares and mowed 
down with grape-shot ("Battues"). The corpses 
of the dead in the river spread epidemics through 
the country, and the use of fish as food had to be 
prohibited because of their having become poison- 
ous from feeding on the decomposing bodies. 
By such cruel measures the Convention managed 
to hold France in subjection. 

482. The Directory. — The new constitution 
drawn up by the committee of the Convention 
had for one of its chief objects the prevention of 
the unification of the executive and legislative 
power in the hands of one party, as to the sover- 
eignty of a single assembly were ascribed the 
many calamities of the preceding three years. 
The executive power under the new constitution 
was vested in a board of five Directors, who were 
to conduct the administration, but without the 
right of proposing laws. The legislature was 
broken up into two chambers; one, the Chamber, 
was to submit the laws to the other, the Coun- 
cil, but neither of the two bodies was to have 
any influence upon the actual government. The 



578 MODERN HISTORY 

Directory assumed control of affairs in October, 
1795, and was overthrown in November, 1799, by 
Napoleon. 

Under the Directory, France entered upon 
an aggressive policy, and in the enthusiasm of 
the time, created by the successful overthrow of 
royal despotism and the abolishing of class dis- 
tinctions and privileges, the Republic wanted to 
exercise its power in giving to other peoples the 
same liberty as that acquired by France. Aus- 
tria and England being the only two formidable 
powers who still remained hostile to the new 
Republic, the Directors planned a decisive blow 
and gathered two large armies, numbering seventy 
thousand men each, for an invasion of Germany, 
under the command of the generals, Moreau and 
Jourdan. A third army of thirty-six thousand 
men was put under the command of Napoleon, 
with the order to expel the Austrians from Italy. 

483. Napoleon in Italy and Egypt. — The army 
which had been placed under the command of 
Napoleon was assembling near Nice, in south- 
eastern France, and when Napoleon joined his 
troops he found them in great discontent because 
of lack of food and clothing. He addressed them 
in one of his characteristic short speeches, for 
which he later became famous, and aroused them 
to enthusiasm for the enterprise which was before 
them. He started the march for Italy even be- 
fore the mountain roads were clear from snow, 
and forced his way over the Maritime Alps. In 



THE ERA OF THE POLITICAL REVOLUTION 579 

the planning of this march Napoleon displayed 
great military ability, and succeeded in striking 
the Austrians before they had been able to join 
their forces. Success now followed upon success, 
and the result of Napoleon's campaign was the 
forming of the Cisalpine Republic, which com- 
prised a considerable part of northern Italy, 
while Genoa was transformed into the so-called 
Ligurian Republic. 

Upon his return to Paris, Napoleon was re- 
ceived with great enthusiasm, and the Directors 
greeted him with affection, but withal they were 
alarmed and feared that the young conqueror 
might be cherishing ambitions similar to Caesar's. 
For this reason they deemed it expedient to assign 
to Napoleon some task that would take him out 
of France, where they saw only danger in his 
presence. An attack upon England being planned 
next, the Directors greeted with a positive sense 
of relief the suggestion made by Napoleon that 
England should be attacked through her Eastern 
possessions, and that France after the conquest 
of Egypt would control the trade of the East, and 
they readily gave their assent to his plans. With 
a most formidable armament Napoleon left Tou- 
lon in May, 1798, and as England was represented 
in the Mediterranean only by a small fleet under 
the command of Nelson , Napoleon easily escaped 
its vigilance, and after the capture of Malta pro- 
ceeded to Egypt, a landing being easily effected 
and Alexandria taken upon the first assault. The 



580 MODERN HISTORY 

army at once proceeded to Cairo, and although 
a force of Mameluke cavalry tried to check the 
progress of the French, they were repulsed with 
enormous loss. Cairo was soon occupied and 
there was no force in Egypt capable of offering 
formidable resistance to the victorious advance 
of the French army. In the meantime the Eng- 
lish fleet under Nelson had received re-enforce- 
ments, and Nelson attacked the French fleet 
anchored in Aboukir Bay. The entire French 
fleet, with the exception of four vessels, was de- 
stroyed in the battle of the Nile, the English 
taking nine thousand prisoners, and Napoleon 
was thus cut off from his only hope of sup- 
port and return. In the spring of 1799 Napoleon 
led his army into Syria, and after the capture 
of Gaza and Jaffa, attacked Acre. Sir Sidney 
Smith, an English admiral, was assisting the 
Turks in the defence of the city, and all the at- 
tempts of Napoleon to take the place by storm 
proved futile. Bitterly disappointed, Napoleon 
led his army back into Egypt. Near Aboukir his 
worn-out army was attacked by the Turks, but 
the genius of Napoleon turned what seemed cer- 
tain defeat into a glorious victory, the news of 
which, the first after many months, reached 
France at a time when the disasters with which 
her armies had "met in Europe in the meantime 
had caused a reaction to set in, which culminated 
in a bitter feeling against the Directors. 

484. The Overthrow of the Directory. — The vie- 



THE ERA OF THE POLITICAL REVOLUTION 581 

tory of Nelson at Aboukir Bay so encouraged the 
European states that they formed a coalition 
against France, the result being the driving out 
of the French from Italy and many other reverses, 
so that they were scarcely able to keep the allies 
out of French territory. 

These reverses caused great dissatisfaction in 
France and the Directory fell into disfavour. 
When the news reached Paris of the great victory 
of Napoleon near Aboukir, where his emaciated 
army had defeated a fresh Turkish army, charges 
were voiced against the Directors of their having 
sent Napoleon into exile, although he was the only 
man who could save the Republic. Confusion set 
in, and the royalists were becoming stronger, so 
that the danger threatened that they would 
attempt to regain control of the government. 
Napoleon learned about this state of affairs. He 
quickly formed his plans, and confiding the com- 
mand of the army to his lieutenant, Kleber, left 
Egypt and set sail for France at once. He was 
welcomed with great enthusiasm, and with the 
aid of two of the Directors was put at the head 
of the troops at Paris. A third Director re- 
signed, and Napoleon quickly seized the oppor- 
tunity, arrested the remaining two, and then, 
at the head of armed grenadiers, drove the mem- 
bers of the Five Hundred from the Chamber. A 
new constitution was then prepared, the executive 
power now being vested in three consuls, elected 
for a term of ten years, the first of whom exercised 



582 MODERN HISTORY 

all the authority, and Napoleon was made First 
Consul, in 1799. 

485. Napoleon's Victories and Laws. — Although 
France was now still called a republic, in reality 
the government was personal and absolute, being 
in fact a military despotism. 

Austria refusing to acknowledge the government 
of Napoleon as legitimate he mustered two armies, 
the one, under Moreau, to invade Germany, the 
second, commanded by himself, for an attack upon 
Austria in Italy. After a memorable passage of 
the Alps he surprised the Austrians by his sudden 
appearance, and defeated an army three times 
larger in numbers than his own at Marengo, June 
14, 1800. Italy thus again came into the posses- 
sion of France. On the same day that the battle 
of Marengo was fought in Italy, Kleber, whom 
Napoleon had left in charge of the army in Egypt, 
was assassinated by a fanatical Turk, and the en- 
tire French army was forced to surrender to the 
English, resulting in the loss of Egypt. In Eu- 
rope the French armies met with great success. A 
few months after the battle of Marengo, Moreau 
gained a decisive victory over the Austrians at 
Hohenlinden, and the emperor, Francis II., was 
now forced to sign a treaty at Luneville, by which 
the Rhine was made the eastern boundary of 
France. In the following year England also 
signed a peace at Amiens, and Napoleon's gov- 
ernment was acknowledged throughout Europe. 
Napoleon now devoted himself to a series of 



THE ERA OF THE POLITICAL REVOLUTION 583 

energetic reforms and to the improvement of the 
internal affairs of the state. At this time were 
begun the various works of architecture, engineer- 
ing, etc., which to this day are the pride of the 
people of France. One of his principal achieve- 
ments was the revising and harmonising of the 
Freiich laws, which he caused to be embodied in 
the celebrated Code Napoleon, which will bear 
comparison with the Corpus Juris Civilis of Jus- 
tinian. By the introduction of this code all the 
oppressive customs, regulations, and decrees that 
had been carried over from the feudal ages were 
swept away, and it has become the framework of 
the laws of Holland, Belgium, Western Germany, 
Switzerland, and Italy, as well as of France. 

In order to reward him for his many services to 
France, and also to secure his energetic activity 
for further continuance of his many vast schemes 
for reforms and improvements, Napoleon was 
made Consul for the term of his life in 1802, and 
the right was voted to him to name his successor. 

486. Napoleon, Emperor of France. — The dis- 
covery of a plot against the life of Napoleon, the 
indignation caused through Europe by the im- 
prisonment and execution of the duke of Enghien, 
who was suspected of having been implicated in 
the conspiracy with Cadoudal and General Piche- 
gru, and the increased activity of the enemies of 
Napoleon , caused the Senate to offer to Napoleon 
a hereditary throne. The request was voiced by 
all the people of France, who wished to secure 



584 MODERN HISTORY 

the safety and stability of his government, and 
Napoleon was proclaimed Emperor of France, 
May 18, 1804. 

The change in France may be said to have been 
one in name only, as Napoleon could not be vested 
with more authority than he already possessed; 
only the form of republican equality vanished, 
and although the social equality was now firmly 
established in France, there again was a Court, 
now officially recognised by the sovereigns of 
Europe. 

The transformation of the French Republic into 
an empire was quickly followed by an equal pro- 
cess in the surrounding republics, so that in five 
years they all were monarchies, dependent upon 
the French Empire. 

The example of Napoleon even found an imi- 
tator in Emperor Francis, who hitherto had been 
emperor in Germany only, but in Austria carried 
the title of king. Francis now proclaimed him- 
self emperor of all his Austrian dominions. 

487. Napoleon's Campaigns. — In 1805 Napoleon 
planned a campaign against England, and gath- 
ered a large army for the purpose, when he re- 
ceived the intelligence that the combined armies 
of the Austrians and Russians were approaching 
the French frontier. He did not await the attack, 
but rapidly marched across the Rhine and, after 
having defeated the Austrians at Ulm, marched 
through Vienna to Austerlitz, where he met the 
combined forces of the allies. The battle was a 



THE ERA OF THE POLITICAL REVOLUTION 585 

decisive victory for Napoleon and completely 
changed the map of Europe. Austria had to 
give up Venetia and other provinces on the 
Adriatic; the kingdom of Germany ceased to 
exist, sixteen of the German states declaring 
themselves independent and forming the so- 
called Confederation of the Rhine, under the pro- 
tectorate of Napoleon; and, finally, Emperor 
Francis was forced to abdicate his title of 
Roman Emperor, which act ended the Holy 
Roman Empire, after an existence of over eight 
hundred years. 

While Napoleon was gaining victory after vic- 
tory on land, many of his plans were shattered by 
a heavy blow dealt to France on the sea, a few 
days after the battle at Ulm. This blow was the 
utter defeat of the combined French and Spanish 
fleets at Trafalgar by the English under Nelson, 
which practically ended the power of France upon 
the sea. The effect of this great naval battle, 
which is said to have been the greatest and most 
momentous victory either on land or on sea dur- 
ing the wars of Napoleon, was the infection of 
the spirit of perseverance into the various people 
that were in arms against the emperor of France. 
The ambition of Napoleon to crush England's 
power on the seas was made utterly hopeless, 
for it took a generation before the French navy 
recovered from the blow. Nothing remained for 
Napoleon except to endeavour to cripple the re- 
sources of England by forcing the states of Europe 



586 MODERN HISTORY 

to exclude her commerce. His hope of conquering 
England now rested with his ability to conquer 
all of Europe. 

In 1806 Prussia, proud in the memories of the 
deeds of Frederick the Great, recklessly chal- 
lenged Napoleon to war. Napoleon acted with 
his usual promptness, and the unskilful conduct 
of the campaign by the Prussian generals materi- 
ally aided him in the contest. He met the forces 
of Hohenlohe at Jena, and on the same day his 
General Davoust engaged the forces of Bruns- 
wick at Auerstadt. The battles were fought 
with great fierceness on both sides, King Fred- 
erick William himself fighting with his army at 
Auerstadt. The Prussians, whose forces out- 
numbered the French, failed to throw their entire 
strength against the enemy, sending up detach- 
ment after detachment to destruction, and the 
retreat of Brunswick's forces, effected with some 
degree of order, was changed into wild flight 
when their columns came in contact with the 
remnants of Hohenlohe 's army, who were flying 
for their lives before the cavalry of Murat. The 
soldiers threw away their arms and scattered over 
the country, utterly routed. 

Reverse upon reverse now followed for Prussia. 
Blucher was forced to capitulate as Hohenlohe had 
done before him ; fortress after fortress fell, and 
the French army entered Berlin in triumph in 
October, 1806. Napoleon now dictated his terms 
to King Frederick, but they were so severe that 



THE ERA OF THE POLITICAL REVOLUTION 587 

the king decided to continue the war, aid having 
been promised him by the Czar of Russia. 

When in the following year the Russian army 
entered Prussia with a view to aiding King 
Frederick, Napoleon directed his forces against 
them. In February a fierce battle was fought 
at Eylau, which, although Napoleon's superior 
tactics finally brought the victory to the French, 
resulted in terrible losses to his army. After hav- 
ing received strong reinforcements, Napoleon re- 
sumed the fighting later in the season, and met 
the Russians under Bennigsen at Friedland in June, 
1807, inflicting upon the latter a very severe and 
decisive defeat, which was followed by an armistice 
suspending the hostilities upon the frontier of 
Russia. In July the treaty of Tilsit was signed 
by France, Russia, and Prussia. Prussia lost 
more than half of her dominions, and Prussian 
Poland was organised as the ' ' Grand Duchy of 
Warsaw," and given to Saxony. The remnant 
of Prussia virtually became a dependency of the 
French Empire. 

488. The Continental System. — The battle of 
Trafalgar had dashed the hopes of Napoleon to 
conquer England by an invasion, and he therefore 
decided upon the only alternative that remained, 
namely, to attempt to cripple the resources of 
England by shutting out the commerce of the 
continent. This he effected by his decrees of 
Berlin and Milan, the result being great industrial 
loss and suffering in England. The prince regent 



588 MODERN HISTOR V 

of Portugal refused to be governed by the decrees 
and opened his ports to English ships. Napoleon 
deposed him, and sent one of his generals to 
take possession of the kingdom. The Portuguese 
royal family fled to Brazil and there established 
the Brazilian Empire, which was overthrown in 
the revolution of 1889. Napoleon now proceeded 
to interfere in the affairs of Spain, as he desired to 
put himself in possession of the entire peninsula. 
He caused the king to abdicate the crown and 
gave it to his brother, Joseph Bonaparte. The 
Spanish people revolted and the French were 
driven out of the country, Joseph himself fleeing 
from his throne, which he had but reluctantly 
occupied a short time before. Napoleon now 
took the field, and, scattering the Spanish forces 
wherever he met them, entered Madrid in triumph 
and restored his brother to the throne. Austria 
then declared war against Napoleon, in order to 
retrieve the disaster of Austerlitz, but Napoleon 
again was victorious, and after the battle of 
Wagram entered Vienna in triumph for the 
second time. 

489. Napoleon's Second Marriage. — Napoleon was 
desirous of divorcing his wife, Josephine, for two 
reasons mainly. First he wished to cover up his 
plebeian birth by an alliance with some great 
royal house of Europe ; and second, as Josephine 
had borne him no offspring he resolved to part 
from her in the hope of securing by another 
marriage an heir to his throne. The czar was 



THE ERA OF THE POLITICAL REVOLUTION 589 

inclined to receive his overtures in that direction 
with favour, but the opposition of the Russian 
nobility to such an alliance finally caused him to 
break off the negotiations, thus once more creating 
hostile relations between himself and Napoleon. 
The emperor now turned to Austria, and Francis 
consented to the marriage of his daughter Maria 
Louisa to his conqueror. The marriage with 
Josephine was annulled by a dispensation from 
Rome, and Maria Louisa was married to Napoleon 
with greatest pomp and display at the Tuileries. 
A son was born to them in the following year, 
and he received the title " King of Rome." Maria 
Louisa left her husband when his fortunes were 
changing, while Josephine is said to have died 
broken-hearted after the fall of the empire. 

490. Napoleon's Decline. — The strained rela- 
tions between the czar and Napoleon were ren- 
dered more acute by the refusal of the czar to 
strictly carry out, the provisions of the Continental 
System, and war broke out anew in 1 8 1 2 . Napoleon 
invaded Russia at the head of a great army, de- 
feated the Russians at Borodino, and occupied 
Moscow, which had been deserted by the inhabi- 
tants. Shortly after the occupation of the city a 
fire broke out, probably caused by persons that had 
been left behind by the Russians for the purpose, 
and Napoleon was forced to order a retreat, his 
offer of peace having been rejected by the czar. 
On the march his army was overtaken by the 
severe winter, and, suffering greatly from hunger 



590 MODERN HISTORY 

and cold, it was constantly being harassed by 
the enemy, so that Napoleon's magnificent array 
of French soldiery finally dwindled down to one 
sixth of its original size, which had been nearly 
six hundred thousand men. Napoleon left the 
army in command of Murat and himself hastened 
to Paris. The great losses sustained by Napoleon 
in this campaign encouraged his enemies to enter 
into an alliance against him, and Russia and 
Prussia again united their forces. Napoleon suc- 
ceeded in raising a new army numbering about 
three hundred thousand men, and defeated the 
allies at Lutzen and Bautzen, in May, 1813. 
Austria now joined his enemies, while Sweden 
and England had been with Russia since the 
previous year. Napoleon won his last victory at 
Dresden in August, but at Leipzig found himself 
opposed by the combined armies of the allies, and 
in this battle, called the " Battle of the Nations," 
because of the number of powers that were repre- 
sented in the coalition against Napoleon, the 
French army was defeated, Napoleon forced to 
retreat into France, and his great dream of 
world-power ended. From that day his decline 
continued. The armies of the allies followed in 
his tracks, and in March, 181 4, entered Paris. 
Napoleon was compelled to abdicate at Fontaine- 
bleau in April, the terms of his abdication giving 
him the island of Elba as a sovereign principality, 
preserving his title of Emperor, and allowing him 
a large yearly income. A congress was called in 



THE ERA OF THE POLITICAL REVOLUTION 59 1 

the same year at Vienna for the purpose of regu- 
lating the relations between the powers that had 
been disturbed by Napoleon. This congress 
replaced everything so far as this was possible 
in the status quo ante helium, endeavouring to re- 
store the conditions that had prevailed before 
the Revolution, and in France Louis XVIII. was 
placed upon the throne. The reactionary policy 
of the latter caused great dissatisfaction through- 
out France, and the people desired the return of 
Napoleon. Napoleon took advantage of this feel- 
ing and left Elba in February, 1815, landing at 
Cannes. The soldiery that had been sent against 
him by Louis XVIII. again joined his standards, 
and Louis deserted his throne before Napoleon 
reached Paris. Napoleon was now desirous to 
maintain peace with the European Powers, but 
they were of the opinion that there could be no 
safety in Europe with Napoleon on a throne in 
their midst, and their armies were again dis- 
patched against France, over one million men 
crossing the frontier of that country. Napoleon 
believed that by engaging his enemies before they 
had joined their forces he would be enabled to 
overwhelm their armies, and he swiftly marched 
into Belgium, where he wanted to engage the 
Prussians and the English. He succeeded in 
defeating the Prussian army under Blucher, but 
at Waterloo, after a terrible all-day struggle, the 
English forces were augmented by the timely 
arrival of Blucher with thirty thousand fresh 



592 MODERN HISTORY 

troops, and all hopes of Napoleon of retrieving 
his fortunes were irrevocably destroyed with the 
slaughter of his grand Old Guard on this fate- 
ful battle-field. In July the allies entered Paris 
a second time, and Napoleon, after a futile at- 
tempt to escape to America, surrendered to the 
English at Rochefort. He was again forced to 
abdicate, and was sent to the island of St. Helena, 
where he was kept a close prisoner until the time 
of his death, in 182 1. 

491. After Events in France (181 5-1 880). — The 
history of France since the second restoration of 
the Bourbons to the present day may be briefly 
designated as a struggle between the democratic 
and monarchical tendencies, in which the repub- 
lican ideas have gained the upper hand, repeated 
reverses notwithstanding. 

Louis XVIII. had learned the lesson of a better 
regard for the wishes of the people, and his reign 
was not accompanied by disturbances. After his 
death, in 1824, Charles X., who succeeded him, 
again adopted a reactionary policy, and in con- 
sequence of the steadily increasing agitation the 
people finally rose in open revolt in 1830, deposed 
Charles X., and placed Louis Philippe, Duke of 
Orleans, upon the throne of France. The reign 
of the latter was not what the people had ex- 
pected, and some unpopular measures adopted 
by the government caused another outbreak in 
the revolutionary year of 1848. Louis Philippe 
fled to England, and the Second Republic was 



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THE ERA OF THE POLITICAL REVOLUTION 593 

now established, Louis Napoleon Bonaparte, a 
nephew of Napoleon, being made the first presi- 
dent. The Second Republic lasted three years 
only. Then Napoleon, just as his great uncle 
had done, usurped the powers of the government, 
dissolved the legislative body, and placed the 
leaders under arrest. He then appealed to the peo- 
ple for the confirmation of his acts. The French 
not only approved, but elected him president 
for ten years, which was practically equal to 
making him dictator. In 1852 he assumed the 
title of Emperor, styling himself Napoleon III. 
Of the subsequent events, the Crimean War, the 
Austro-Sardinian War, and the Franco-Prussian 
War are the most important. The last-named 
of these wars had been provoked by Napoleon 
III., who was desirous of strengthening his in- 
fluence with the people by victories similar to 
those of the great Napoleon, and also because he 
was jealous of the growing power of Prussia. The 
French army invaded Germany, but was thrown 
back, and the German forces defeated a large 
army at Gravelotte, and at Sedan took the emperor 
prisoner. The Germans then advanced upon Paris, 
and after a siege of a few months the capital was 
forced to capitulate, and again Paris witnessed the 
spectacle of a foreign army entering its portals 
in triumph. By the terms of peace agreed upon 
shortly after, France gave up Alsace and Lorraine 
to Germany, and Germany was also to receive an 

indemnity equal to one thousand million dollars. 
38 



594 MODERN HISTORY 

After the decisive defeat of the French at 
Sedan, where the emperor was taken prisoner by 
the Germans, Gambetta arose in the legislature 
and declared the emperor deposed and the French 
Republic established (September 4, 1870). After 
the restoration of order, Thiers was elected the 
first president of the Third Republic. 

H — The Government of France 

492. Effect of the French Revolution upon the 
Administrative System. — The administrative sys- 
tem suffered little, if any, change through the in- 
fluence of the French Revolution. The republican 
interests would have demanded a development of 
the local features of administration, but this fact 
was ignored by the leaders of the Revolution, who 
practically continued the old royal system, which 
paid little heed to local interests, by administering 
the government through the medium of executive 
boards. While they acted as the representatives 
of the people, they simply substituted themselves 
for the king, retaining the agencies that had been 
in vogue during the monarchy. 

493. Napoleon's Influence. — Napoleon, in re- 
establishing despotism, simply adapted the prin- 
ciples followed by the Constituent Assembly, 
which had sought to systematise centralisation, 
and he substituted himself for the Assembly and 
Convention, while he assigned the duties of the 
various executive boards to individuals, thus 
greatly simplifying the structure of administra- 



THE ERA OF THE POLITICAL REVOLUTION 595 

tive organisation. However, he assigned ad- 
visory boards to the various officials, whom they 
might consult if they chose to do so, there being 
no obligation on their part to follow the advice 
thus received. The country was redivided into 
eighty-nine departments (the loss of Alsace and 
Lorraine reduced this number to eighty-six) in- 
stead of the old generalities, and this division 
Napoleon made the basis for a new territorial 
organisation, substituting prefects and sub-pre- 
fects for the intendants and delegates of the 
monarchical period. This organisation still con- 
tinues the foundation of the administrative sys- 
tem of the French Republic. 

494. The Third Republic. — The struggle in France 
between the democratic and monarchical tend- 
encies continued, and although the republican 
ideas have met repeated reverses, in the end they 
gained the upper hand. 

Louis XVIII. respected the wishes of the peo- 
ple, to some extent at least, and his reign was not 
marred by revolutions. Charles X., his suc- 
cessor, adhered to a reactionary policy and the 
French rose in open revolt, deposed him, and put 
Louis Philippe, the Duke of Orleans, upon the 
throne of France (see Sec. 491). Another revolt 
broke out in 1848 and the Second Republic 
was established, Louis Napoleon Bonaparte being 
elected president. The Republic had lasted for 
three years only when Napoleon usurped the pow- 
ers of government, dissolved the legislative body, 



596 MODERN HISTORY 

and placed the leaders under arrest. He was then 
elected president for a term of ten years, thereby 
practically becoming dictator, and assumed the 
title of Emperor in 1852, as Napoleon III. After 
the defeat of the French at Sedan the Third Re- 
public was established. 

A provisional government was organised and a 
National Assembly elected early in 1871, but as 
a majority of the Assembly consisted of Mon- 
archists, who again were divided into Legitimists, 
Orleanists, and Imperialists, no permanent action 
was taken. Grevy was elected president of the 
Assembly, and Thiers was made Chief of the 
Executive Power of the Republic, this title being 
changed later to that of president, and the 
government was administered by the Assembly 
through its president for five years, until 1875, 
when the framing of a new constitution was at 
last completed. 

495. Character of the Constitution. — The As- 
sembly embodied in the constitutional laws only 
the general outlines of the government, such as the 
election and definition of the powers of the presi- 
dent, the organisation of the Assembly, and rules 
to govern its sessions, the relations between the 
president and the Senate and the Chamber of Depu- 
ties; and these laws were made changeable by 
constitutional amendment only, through joint ac- 
tion of both houses, united in National Assembly, 
which would give them the same sovereign powers 
as had been exercised by the Assembly of 1875. 



THE ERA OF THE POLITICAL REVOLUTION 597 

The organic laws passed by the Assembly regu- 
lated the election of senators and deputies, and 
these laws were made open to change by statutory 
enactment of both branches of the legislature. 

The prominent feature of the new constitution 
is the fact that it does not pretend to include all 
of the public law of France and leaves room for 
improvement, while it also includes much of 
previous usage which is not in direct contradiction 
to the character of the Republic. 

496. The Chamber of Deputies. — The Chamber 
of Deputies is composed of five hundred and 
eighty-four members, elected by districts, or 
arrondissements, the division of the country into 
eighty-six departments being made the basis for 
the representation in the Chamber, the number 
of deputies assigned to each district being in 
proportion to its population. The election by 
districts, scrutin d'arrondissement, was changed 
in 1885 to election on a general ticket, scrutin de 
liste, but in 1889 the original plan was re-adopted 
because of the majorities the change had given 
to Boulanger. 

The colonies of France are represented in the 
Chamber as follows: Algiers by five deputies, 
Martinique, Reunion, Guadaloupe, Guyana, Co- 
chin-China, and Senegal by one deputy each. 

The officers of the Chamber of Deputies are: 
one president, four vice-presidents, eight secre- 
taries, and four quaestors, who serve for the term 
of one year. 



598 MODERN HISTORY 

The law regulating the election of the deputies 
excludes election by plurality on the first ballot, 
and a candidate can be elected only if he receives 
a majority of all votes cast and over one-fourth 
of the total registered vote. If none of the 
candidates receives this required number of 
votes, another vote must be taken two weeks 
later, and at this second ballot a plurality is 
sufficient for election. The deplorable result of 
this rule is the encouragement it offers to the 
creation of smaller factions and groups, who 
endeavour to secure as many votes as possible 
on the first ballot, even if not enough for the 
election of their candidate, in order to be able 
to gain concessions and favours for their party 
after having shown some political strength. 

The political powers of the Chamber of Depu- 
ties, although intended to be the equal of those of 
the Senate, and subject to the control of the presi- 
dent and the Senate, the president having the 
power to dissolve the Chamber of Deputies with 
the sanction of the Senate, gradually proved more 
efficacious, the Senate being relegated to second 
place. The government, in fact, is controlled by 
the ever-changing power of the Chamber of 
Deputies, so that it constitutes but a feeble 
warranty for the success, or even the existence, 
of the Republic. 

497. The. Senate — The Senate consists of three 
hundred members, one-fourth part of this num- 
ber having been elected by the National Assembly 



THE ERA OF THE POLITICAL REVOLUTION 599 

to hold office for life, and all existing vacancies 
were to be filled by vote of the Senate itself. 
Since 1884, however, these vacancies are being 
filled by election in the departments for the usual 
term of office, which is nine years, and life-mem- 
bership will thus gradually be abolished. 

The members of the Senate are elected in the 
departments as well as in the colonies by special 
electoral colleges, consisting of the deputies, the 
general councillors of the departments, the coun- 
cillors of the arrondissements, and one delegate 
from each municipal council. Every third year 
one-third of the membership of the Senate is 
renewed. The officers of the Senate are: one 
president, four vice-presidents, six secretaries, 
and four quaestors, elected to serve one year. 
The political powers of the Senate are exceeded 
by those of the Chamber of Deputies, although 
both houses are on an equal footing regarding 
legal powers. 

498. The National Assembly. — The National 
Assembly is the Senate and the Chamber of 
Deputies assembled in joint session, either for the 
election of the president of the Republic or for 
the revision of the constitution. It meets for the 
specific purpose for which it has assembled, and 
must adjourn immediately after the object has 
been accomplished, which is decided by a majority 
vote of the united houses. The sessions of the 
National Assembly cannot exceed five months. 
It is forbidden to consider the repeal of the 



6oo MODERN HISTORY 

republican form of government, although the law 
itself, which prohibits this, could be repealed by 
it. 

499. The French Executive. — The president of 
the Republic and his Cabinet Council, consisting 
of eleven ministers, administer the executive de- 
partment of the government of France. The 
president of the Republic is chosen for a term of 
seven years by the National Assembly, and the 
ministers are appointees of the president, but 
they are responsible to the Chambers for their 
conduct while in office. The following are the 
eleven portfolios: 1, Justice; 2, War; 3, Finance; 
4, Marine and Colonies; 5, Interior; 6, Foreign 
Affairs; 7, Public Instruction, Religion, and Fine 
Arts; 8, Public Works; 9, Agriculture; 10, Trade 
and Industry; 11, Posts and Telegraphs. 

The president has the promulgation of the laws 
passed by Parliament, makes treaties and alli- 
ances, appoints all officers in the service of the 
government, and has the power to adjourn the 
Chambers. He can dissolve the Chamber of 
Deputies with the sanction of the Senate, but he 
cannot declare war without advice of the Cham- 
bers, and although the constitution holds him 
responsible in case of high treason only, when he is 
to be impeached by the Chamber of Deputies and 
tried by the Senate, none of the presidents of the 
Third Republic has completed his term of office, 
having either chosen to resign or been forced to 
do so. 



THE ERA OF THE POLITICAL REVOLUTION 6oi 

The ministers, while they are the appointees of 
the president, are in fact the representatives of 
the Chambers, and as a rule are chosen from the 
members of Parliament. Although the president 
can return laws passed by the Parliament for re- 
consideration, and has the right to appeal to the 
people by dissolving the Chamber of Deputies, 
these powers are seldom exercised, and the gov- 
ernment is practically in the hands of the Cham- 
ber of Deputies, the ministers constituting so to 
speak, only subservient tools, ready to do its 
bidding, this result having been brought about 
by the capricious wilfulness of the Chamber, 
which is quick to reject, and by the power of 
Interpellation to cause the downfall of any 
ministry that should refuse to submit to its whims 
and to be governed by them. 

500. The Cabinet and Council of Ministers. — The 
Cabinet of Ministers and the Council of Ministers 
are composed of the same persons, but as official 
bodies they are distinctly separated, the first 
being a political, the second an administrative 
body exclusively. 

The ministers, as the Cabinet, represent the 
Chambers, and are not a body recognised by law, 
their political relation to the president in this 
capacity placing them practically over him, while 
as the Council of Ministers they constitute a 
subordinate body of advisers and assistants to 
the president as the chief executive in the gene- 
ral administration of government, the various 



6(32 MODERN HISTORY 

departments, presided over by the ministers, be 
ing creations of the president's decrees and not of 
the constitution. However, even in this latter ca- 
pacity the power of the Chambers, through the 
ministers, is revealed, as no decree of the president 
is valid without the signature of the respective 
ministers, and as such decrees in nearly all cases in 
some way effect the Budget, and all such matters 
form subjects for consideration by the Cabinet 
and the Chambers, the actions of the president, 
though he is the head of the administration, are 
thus brought within the sphere of influence of the 
Cabinet. 

501. Question and Interpellation.— The minis- 
ters in France are by law made responsible to the 
Chambers, but as they could not effect the carry- 
ing of any of their measures without the approval 
of the majority of the Houses, or, practically, of 
the Chamber of Deputies only, and the precedent 
for the resignation of a ministry in cases of such 
failure being well established, they are virtually 
dependent upon the Houses as to their tenure of 
office. 

This dependency is upheld by the privilege en- 
joyed by the members of the Chambers to ques- 
tion or interpellate the ministers. 

The Question is a matter between the individual 
member of the Chambers and the minister only, 
and consists in the former asking questions as to 
affairs of state, after due notification of the 
minister concerned and his consenting to hearing 



THE ERA OF THE POLITICAL REVOLUTION 603 

the questions, which must, in obedience to custom, 
at least be answered as far as the public interests 
will permit. 

The Interpellation, on the other hand, is a 
formal challenge of the policy of the Cabinet, is- 
sued without any previous notice that such action 
was contemplated, and, as a rule, is submit- 
ted to a vote, which either expresses confidence 
or absence of confidence in the ministers, the 
resignation of the Cabinet being the inevitable 
result of the latter action, disapproving of its 
policy. 

502. Centralised Control. — The peculiar logical 
genius of the French and their tendency to cen- 
tralised control is exhibited in the extremely sys- 
tematic devices and in the regular form of their 
local government. The effort of their wisest 
statesmen of recent years has been to effect some 
degree of decentralisation and to cultivate local 
self-reliance. 

503. Legislation and the " Bureau " System. — Be- 
fore any proposition, whether made by a minis- 
ter or a private member, can be put to a vote 
in Parliament, it must undergo a test in com- 
mittees (bureaux), and measures introduced by 
private members must first be passed by a 
Monthly Committee on Parliamentary Initiative 
before they can even reach the special committee. 
From the delay incident to the handling of a bill 
by the committees a ministerial proposition can 
be exempted upon the passing of an emergency 



604 MODERN HISTORY 

vote, by which also a private member's bill can 
be directly referred to the committee without 
having to be passed upon by the Committee on 
Parliamentary Initiative. 

In the Chamber of Deputies the members are 
divided every month by lot into eleven com- 
mittees, or bureaux, while the Senate chooses 
nine, and from among the members of these 
committees are selected four monthly committees, 
on Leave, Petitions, Parliamentary Initiative, 
Local Interests, one committee for a term of one 
year on the Budget, and all the special committees. 

504. Officials in a French Department. — Each 
department of France is administered by a pre- 
fect, who acts as the representative of the central 
government in the department. He has the 
authority to issue local decrees, appoints a num- 
ber of agents, who depend directly on him, is at 
the head of the police for the maintenance of 
public order, and executes the ministerial laws 
and decrees. He introduces all affairs concerning 
the department, and carries out the decisions of 
the General Council and of the Departmental 
Committees within the limits of the law. The 
collection of taxes is also superintended by the 
prefect, who transmits to the subordinate func- 
tionaries of his department the instructions and 
orders of the ministers, constituting himself, so 
to speak, the general agent of government, the 
principal instrument of centralisation in the state. 

The deliberative power pertains to the General 



THE ERA OF THE POLITICAL REVOLUTION 60$ 

Council, which is composed of as many members 
as there are cantons in the department, this 
number varying from seventeen to sixty-two, the 
term of office being six years, and one-half of the 
membership being renewed every three years. 

While the General Council possesses the right 
to appropriate moneys for some departmental 
expenses, decides about new roads, railways, or 
canals, gives advice in matters of local interest, 
and apportions the taxes levied by the Chambers 
among the several arrondissements, it has no 
power to impose direct taxes, and all its acts for 
the appropriation of moneys must be confirmed 
by presidential decree before they become valid, 
so that its functions can be said to be directory 
rather than originative, its rights in the latter 
direction being greatly restricted. 

505. The Arrondissement. — The arrondissement 
is the largest administrative division of a depart- 
ment, and is the unit of the electoral college for 
the Chamber of Deputies, and forms also a judicial 
district, being the seat of a tribunal of first in- 
stance, or primary court. The sub-prefect is the 
representative of the central power in the arron- 
dissement, his position being similar, though his 
authority is more limited, to that of the prefect in 
the department. 

The sub-prefect is assisted in his work by the 
Council of the Arrondissement, an elective body, 
to which each canton of the arrondissement sends 
one member, and the functions of which are 



6o6 MODERN HISTORY 

principally of an advisory character, because its 
decisions are controlled by the prefect and may 
be annulled by the president of the Republic. 

506. The Canton. — -The canton is the next ter- 
ritorial subdivision following the arrondissement. 
It is the electoral district from which the members 
of "the General Council of the Department and of 
the Council of the Arrondissement are elected. 

In connection with the judicial system of the 
country each canton is the seat of a justice of the 
peace (juge de paix), and it also constitutes a 
muster district for the army, but has no adminis- 
trative organisation. 

507. The Commune. — The commune is the ad- 
ministrative unit in France. At its head is a 
mayor, assisted by deputies, who are unsalaried 
officials, chosen from among the members of the 
Municipal Council, which occupies the same rela- 
tive position as the General Council in the 
department and is similarly dependent upon 
the central government, being, however, in some 
degree under the control of the prefect, who has 
the power to dissolve it for one month. 

508. The Scope of the Administrative Divisions. 
— In the local administration in France the cen- 
tral government is ever present in the person of 
the prefect, and the local bodies as well as the 
individual citizens are kept under a constant and 
systematic guardianship, centralisation being the 
general rule of the French administration. 

All local boards and officers are dependent 



THE ERA OF THE POLITICAL REVOLUTION 607 

upon the central government in Paris, excepting 
the mayor of the commune, who is not appointed, 
but is elected by the Municipal Council. 

The acts of the General Council of the Depart- 
ment are subject to revision by the central govern- 
ment, while the members, although they do not 
receive any pay for the services rendered to the 
state, are compelled by fines to perform the duties 
of their office. The tendency which strictly ex- 
cludes the expression by the General Council of 
any opinion on questions of a political character, 
and which places the entire supervision into the 
hands of the central government, bespeaks a 
developed system of centralisation, which differs 
greatly from the central control as exercised in 
England. While the governmental departments 
in London have assumed the supervision of im- 
portant matters, they have done so in a spirit 
of co-operation rather than of centralisation, 
merely bringing the influence of their advice 
within easy reach of the local bodies, never im- 
posing upon local government the restricting 
power of an official representative, or divesting 
it of its originative qualifications. The difference 
is even more marked in the case of the United 
States, and although the discretionary power of 
officials in the United States is very limited, all 
their duties, functions, and privileges being de- 
fined by the statutes, this control, while fully 
adequate, is one of law purely, no official organ- 
isation being deemed necessary to enforce it. 



608 MODERN HISTORY 

509. Sphere of the Council of State. — In France 
a sharp distinction is made between questions in- 
volving the rights of individuals and their rela- 
tions, and questions pertaining to official acts and 
public power. While the former are settled in 
the regular law courts, controlled by the Ministry 
of Justice, the latter are attended to by special 
administrative courts, under the Ministry of the 
Interior. 

The highest of these administrative courts is 
the Council of State, which constitutes the high- 
est authority in administrative questions, and 
is also an advisory body to the Chambers and 
to the government on questions within the scope 
of its power. It is composed of the ministers and 
high officials of the government. 

510. Sphere of the Prefectural Council. — The Pre- 
fectural Council is a similar body, next in rank 
to the Council of State, and to it belong the de- 
cisions in cases involving the elections to the 
Council of the Arrondissement and to the Muni- 
cipal Council, and it has jurisdiction in contests 
between administrative authority and individual 
rights. Appeal can be made from nearly all of 
the decisions of the Prefectural Council to the 
Council of State. Besides the Prefectural Council 
there are also the Court of Revision, the Superior 
Court of Public Instruction, and a Court of Audit, 
each of which is subordinate to the Council of 
State. 

511. The Judicial System of France. — The high- 



THE ERA OF THE POLITICAL REVOLUTION 609 

est judiciary tribunal in France is the Court of 
Cassation. It is held in Paris, and its province is 
to decide all appeals from the other courts, order- 
ing new trials in cases where the forms of law 
have been infringed. 

Next in rank are twenty-six Courts of Appeal, 
which decide the action when the sentence of a 
tribunal of first instance, or primary court, which 
is established in every arrondissement, has been 
appealed from. The primary courts decide ap- 
peals from decisions of the justices of the peace. 
In cases involving the safety of the state the 
Senate may be appointed a special court by the 
president. 

Offences which rank as crimes are judged in the 
Cours cf Assises, consisting of three magistrates 
and twelve jurors. These courts are not station- 
ary, and are held in the chief towns of the depart- 
ments once in three months. In the ordinary 
civil courts the judge decides all questions of fact 
as well as of law. 

Whenever questions of jurisdiction are involved 
the Tribunal of Conflicts decides as to whether 
the case in hand belongs to an ordinary civil court 
or to one of the administrative courts. This 
special court is composed of the Privy Seal, who 
acts as its president, three state councillors, 
three members of the Court of Cassation, and two 
additional members, selected by the members 
already enumerated. 



6lO MODERN HISTORY 

I — Russia 

512. The Crimean War (1854-1856). — In 1853 
Czar Nicholas demanded of the Sultan of Turkey 
to recognise him as the Protector of the Greek 
Christians residing within Turkish territory, this 
request being of course only a pretext for war, as 
the czar hoped that the sultan, whose empire was 
in a very weak state, would fall an easy prey to 
his arms and thus put him into possession of the 
long-coveted country on the Bosporus and of the 
Dardanelles. The sultan refused the czar's re- 
quest, and Nicholas immediately invaded Mol- 
davia. This high-handed proceeding created 
indignation among the Western powers, especially 
France and England, who now entered into an 
alliance with Turkey (1854). Sebastopol fell into 
the hands of the allies after a siege, stubbornly 
contested by the Russians under General Totleben, 
which lasted over a year, and, as the warlike czar 
had died, a peace was signed soon afterwards at 
Paris (1856). By the treaty Russia received 
back Sebastopol, but was forced to abandon her 
designs upon Turkey, and the duty of protecting 
the Christians on Turkish soil was now assumed 
by the combined powers of Europe. 

513. Reforms. — Czar Alexander II. (1855-1881), 
who had succeeded Nicholas, was a humane ruler 
and instituted remarkable reforms by giving 
freedom, in 1858, to about twenty-five million 
serfs on the crown domains and, in 1861, to 



THE ERA OF THE POLITICAL REVOLUTION 6ll 

twenty million serfs on the domains of the nobles. 
Of these only the last-named were serfs in any- 
thing like the true sense of the word, the serfs on 
the crown domains being under scarcely more 
obligation than the payment of a light yearly 
rental. Czar Alexander instituted other reforms, 
and in the beginning of his reign pursued a very 
liberal policy. 

514. Russia and Turkey. — After the so-called 
Bulgarian atrocities in 1876, the czar again de- 
clared war against Turkey. In this war Russia 
was very successful, the only serious opposition 
being offered by Osman Pasha, who had fortified 
himself at Plevna and for five months baffled all 
attempts of the Russians to take the place by 
storm. Finally, when the supplies had given out, 
Osman Pasha, with the remnant of his worn-out 
troops, surrendered to the Russians in December, 
1877. The Russian army now continued their 
march towards Constantinople, and the Turks 
were compelled to accept the severe terms of the 
peace of San Stefano, which virtually provided 
for the dissolution of the Turkish Empire. Eng- 
land demanded that the treaty be submitted to 
the powers for revision, and Russia, being threat- 
ened with another war, gave way. The congress 
at Berlin now undertook the revision of the peace 
of San Stefano, and as all European powers were 
more or less jealous and suspicious of Russia the 
territories which Russia had wished to acquire 
were made independent, among them Roumania, 



6l2 MODERN HISTORY 

Servia, Montenegro, while Bulgaria was given self- 
government, with the obligation of a yearly trib- 
ute to the sultan. Bulgaria has since been united 
with East Roumelia, and Servia and Roumania 
have declared themselves kingdoms. Bosnia and 
Herzegovina were given to Austria-Hungary. 

515. Nihilism.— Nihilists are the Russian revo- 
lutionaries and rebels against the absolute govern- 
ment of the czar, and their programme includes 
the establishment of a constitutional govern- 
ment, assassination being one of their admitted 
methods of attaining the desired reform. After 
the emancipation of the serfs the educated classes 
were led to expect the most liberal reforms 
from the czar, and when he refused the de- 
mand for a constitutional government the radical 
element united in secret plots against the gov- 
ernment and finally drifted into Nihilism. Their 
propaganda has been steadily kept up for many 
years, and it is still in evidence. In 1881 the 
czar was assassinated, and the government in- 
stituted many harsh measures against the mem- 
bers of the organisation of the Nihilists, many 
being executed and thousands exiled and sent to 
the penal mines of Siberia, but the movement has 
not been crushed and there can hardly be any 
doubt that the demands for reform will have to 
be met in the end, the edict of Czar Nicholas III., 
issued in 1905, granting a constitutional assembly, 
being a step in the right direction if upheld by the 
government without repressing measures. 



THE ERA OF THE POLITICAL REVOLUTION 613 

K — Germany 

516. Germany in the Nineteenth Century. — After 
the overthrow of Napoleon the German states were 
reorganised as a confederation", at the head of 
which was the emperor of Austria. Matters that 
related to all the states, and disputes between 
individual members of the confederation, were to 
be settled by a diet formed of representatives of 
the thirty-nine states. Each state was inde- 
pendent so far as its own affairs were concerned ; 
each could carry on war with foreign states, and 
form alliances, but no action was permissible that 
would endanger another member of the confedera- 
tion. Religious toleration was one of the pro- 
visions of the articles of confederation. 

The rulers of the various states conducted the 
government of their domains without regard to 
the increasing demands of the German people 
for representative government, and they opposed 
all changes that would give the people a greater 
measure of liberty. Events now shaped them- 
selves much as they had done in France. When, in 
1830, Charles X. was driven out of France, and the 
" Citizen King" placed upon the throne, the wide- 
spread discontent of the people in Germany found 
an outlet in a threatening demonstration against 
their rulers, and several of the princes were forced 
to grant the demand of the people for a repre- 
sentative government. However, as soon as the 
revolutionary movement had ended, they quickly 



6 14 MODERN HISTORY 

brought affairs back into the shape they had been 
in before the uprising. At this time the first step 
was taken toward the unification of the German 
states, and this was the formation of the so-called 
Customs Union, of which Prussia was the chief 
promoter. This was a commercial treaty pro- 
viding for free trade between the members of the 
Union. 

When the revolution broke out in France in 
1848, ending with the flight of Louis Philippe, 
and the establishment of the Second Republic, 
the flame of revolt spread rapidly over nearly all 
Europe. In Germany the liberal party arose 
quickly and demanded constitutional govern- 
ment. Almost all the smaller states were com- 
pelled to yield to the popular demand, but in 
Austria and Prussia the end sought by the lib- 
eral party was not gained until after riots and 
bloodshed . 

517. William I. and Bismarck. — William I. was 
sixty-four years old when he succeeded his brother 
Frederick William on the throne of Prussia, in 
1 861, and he appointed as his prime minister the 
distinguished statesman Otto von Bismarck, in 
1862. 

William had a passionate interest in everything 
pertaining to war, and he received a good school- 
ing in the military art, having taken active part 
in the campaigns against Napoleon. His name 
is associated with that of Bismarck in the history 
of the unification of Germany, but although most 



THE ERA OF THE POLITICAL REVOLUTION 615 

of the credit for the achievements in that direction 
must be given to the powerful political ability of 
Bismarck, and the military genius of Moltke, to 
William must be given credit for his sagacity in 
selecting such men as his advisers and assistants. 
Bismarck was a conservative, and was hated by 
the liberal party, but he assumed a conciliatory 
attitude, inaugurated a series of economic re- 
forms, and endeavoured to elevate the position of 
the labouring classes. 

When the Schleswig-Holstein complications 
were renewed, Bismarck formed an alliance with 
Italy against Austria, and Prussia was found 
thoroughly prepared for the impending struggle 
when the so-called Seven Weeks' War broke out 
in 1866. By the peace of Prague Austria was 
shut out from participation in the affairs of 
Germany, and the northern states now formed a 
confederation, called the North German Union, 
under the leadership of Prussia. 

Bismarck maintained a friendly attitude toward 
the southern states, and greatly aided by his 
statesmanship in preparing the way for the perfect 
unity with which all of the German states joined 
hands at the breaking out of the Franco- Prussian 
War, in 1870. William I. personally took com- 
mand of the combined armies, and during the 
progress of the siege of Paris the southern states 
were received into the Union, which now took 
the name of the German Confederation. Shortly 
after, the king of Prussia, William I., assumed the 



6l6 MODERN HISTORY 

title of Emperor, at the suggestion of the king of 
Bavaria, and the unification of Germany was 
completed. 

518. The Franco-Prussian War. — The immedi- 
ate cause of the Franco-Prussian War was the 
offering of the crown of Spain to a prince of the 
house of Hohenzollern, but this evidently was 
only a pretext offered by Napoleon III., as Leo- 
pold, to whom the offer had been made, had 
declined it, to avoid displeasing France. The 
real cause was the growing jealousy of Napoleon 
of Prussia, and his desire to strengthen his in- 
fluence with the people by foreign conquests. 
When William declined the demand of Napoleon 
III. to give positive assurance that no member of 
the house of Hohenzollern would ever become a 
candidate for the Spanish crown, war was de- 
clared. The southern states of Germany took 
the demand made by Napoleon as a national 
insult, and at once offered their armies to William. 
) /The French army invaded Germany ^but the Ger- 
man forces soon gained victory after victory and 
the French were forced to retreat into their own 
territory, the Germans pressing after them. 
The principal battles were at Gravelotte, where 
the French army, under Marshal Bazaine, was 
defeated, and retreated to Metz. At Sedan the 
French suffered another terrible defeat, and the 
emperor was made a prisoner by the Germans. 
Shortly after, Marshal Bazaine capitulated at 
Metz, surrendering with an army of 170,000 men. 



THE ERA OF THE POLITICAL REVOLUTION 6\J 

for which he was tried and condemned to death. 
He was imprisoned, his sentence having been 
commuted to twenty years' imprisonment, but 
escaped to Spain, where he died in 1888. After 
the surrender of Metz the German armies marched 
upon Paris, and after a siege of four months 
Paris capitulated. Preliminaries of peace were 
at once begun, and in March the German troops 
occupied Paris. In May the peace of Frankfort 
was signed, which ratified the preliminaries. 
France was compelled to cede Alsace and Lorraine, 
and pay a heavy indemnity to Germany. 

L — The Government of Germany 

519. Early Institutions and Conditions in Ger- 
many. — The historical development of conditions 
and institutions in Germany shows many diversi- 
fied and complicated features. 

The several groups of tribes in early Germany 
were closely allied in race, speech, customs, and 
social organisation, and were settled in com- 
munities which administered their own govern- 
ment. Later came the confederation of the tribes, 
who constituted, for the purpose of attack or 
defence, a single state; and during and after the 
migratory movements of the period of the Teu- 
tonic conquests in Gaul and Italy were formed 
the various changes which led to the creation of 
kingship. The official organisation of the latter, 
with the attending growth of the influence of 



6l8 MODERN HISTORY 

landowners, at first because of their official con- 
nexion with the king, later because of their per- 
sonal weight on account of their tenure of land, 
was one of the sources of feudalism ; and through 
the modifying process of the feudal system the 
kingly office attained a sovereignty hitherto 
foreign to the Teutonic system of government, 
which, by this process of growth toward the 
modern political life, was evolved from its char- 
acteristic individualism into an absolutism re- 
sembling in many features that of the imperial 
system of Rome. 

520. Organisation of the Frankish Monarchy. — 
Under the Frankish monarchy the country was 
divided into shires. A shire, or " Gau," usually 
took its name from the river that flowed through 
it, or from some conspicuous object in it ; if it 
was situated on the frontier it was called a 
" Mark." In order to make their sovereign pow- 
ers more effectual in all districts, the Frankish 
monarchs appointed counts, the " Graf en," over 
every Gau or Mark, as their representatives, who 
became the king's vicegerents, but whose juris- 
diction was scarcely ever very clearly defined, 
many of the landowners within their districts 
being granted special privileges and political 
functions, while baronies constituting petty 
sovereignties were also freely created. 

521. Feudalisation in Germany and France. — 
The Graf was at first practically a minister of the 
king, and on his death his office and title were 



THE ERA OF THE POLITICAL REVOLUTION 619 

given to some other favourite. The barons were 
lords by virtue of their possessions of land. The 
offices of the Grafen were in time made hereditary, 
because the transfer of the office to another fam- 
ily on the death of a count caused jealousy and 
discontent, and, as with the office generally 
were given crown lands as fiefs, they, of course, 
were now also continued in the family, and thus 
the two sets of lords, Grafen and barons, as- 
sumed a similar character, and proprietorship 
became connected with office, while the latter 
acquired from such proprietorship the quality of 
heredity. 

The process of development of territorial sover- 
eignty was continued, and in the thirteenth cent- 
ury the feudal system of Germany was fully 
established. The dukes, in ancient Germany 
the generals in command in time of war, whose 
titles had in time also become hereditary, the 
Grafen and barons, as well as the bishops of the 
Church, became now feudal lords. While the 
characteristics of the feudal systems of Germany 
and France were the same, there was a marked 
difference in the process of development. In 
France the appointment of the representatives of 
the king, after feudalism had been established, 
through the concentration of authority in the 
king's hands, led to the decline of feudal sover- 
eignty, while in. Germany the royal delegates 
appointed during the process of the formation of 
the feudal system exchanged their office for the 



620 MODERN HISTORY 

independent privileges of territorial sovereigns. 

522. The Markgraf and the Mark. — The Mark- 
grafen, the Graf en appointed over the shires on the 
frontier, called " Marken," to defend the kingdom 
against foreign invasion, were given great privi- 
leges by the king, and they were, as the purpose 
of the appointment suggested, the most skilled 
soldiers of the times. They were made de facto 
dictators in the border districts which they were 
to hold against foreign attack, and were also 
granted such territory as they should conquer and 
bring under the nominal dominion of the king. 

Two of the Marks are important as having 
formed the nucleus for two great powers, namely 
the Nord Mark, established in the tenth century 
against the Wends, which by enlarging of its 
territory became the Mark Brandenburg, and the 
Ost Mark, established by Charles the Great against 
the Magyars, which became the foundation upon 
which was built the empire of Austria. The 
Mark Brandenburg was given by Sigismund after 
the Hussite wars to the house of Hohenzollern, of 
Niirnberg, first as a pledge for a loan of four 
hundred thousand guldens, later as a permanent 
fief. Under the able leadership of the Hohen- 
zollerns the limits of the Mark were steadily 
widened ; it finally took in Prussia, and eventually 
became the centre of a mighty kingdom, Fred- 
erick II., King of Prussia, placing the country on 
an even footing with Austria, which the house of 
Habsburg had built up out of the Ost Mark, and 



THE ERA OF THE POLITICAL REVOLUTION 62 1 

thus was created the rivalry between Prussia, 
Germany, and Austria for the control of affairs 
in Germany, which was not settled until 1866, 
when Austria, by force of arms, was finally shut 
out from participation in the affairs of Germany. 

523. The Imperial Title and its Influence. — Ger- 
many, in fact, never became an empire until its 
unification was completed in 187 1. The preten- 
tious title of the Holy Roman Empire, with its 
suggestions of world-power, might well have 
caused the Germans to develop a pride in the 
accomplishment of the task which the German 
monarchs had taken upon themselves with the 
crown of the Caesars. Such, however, was not the 
case, and they did not show the least desire for 
the honour, nor did they appreciate the efforts of 
the emperors, which took the latter away for 
years at a time from their native land, and from 
the affairs of their own people, while they went 
forth in pursuit of the phantom which was not 
only to weaken the allegiance of the Germans 
toward their sovereign, but actually undermined 
it ; as the great feudal lords, in the absence of the 
emperors, seized many opportunities for the 
extension of their own powers, which it was 
difficult for the emperors later to dispute. 

Germany practically owes to its connexion 
with the imperial title and the pretensions per- 
taining thereto the fact that it remained for 
centuries the most divided nation of Europe, 
notwithstanding its excellent qualifications in 



622 MODERN HISTORY 

respect of race, speech, customs, and social 
arrangements, which seemingly rendered it espe- 
cially adaptable for the creation of a truly homo- 
geneous state. 

524. The Extinction of the Holy Roman Empire. 
—During the eighteenth century the Holy Roman 
Empire had steadily been declining, and when 
Francis II. ascended the throne of Augustus, in 
1792, it was but a corpse ready to crumble to 
pieces. 

The swift succession of triumphs which accom- 
panied Napoleon's career left the Holy Roman 
Empire the only factor which prevented his 
recognition as sovereign of Western Europe. 
After the victory of Austerlitz, Napoleon realised 
that his opportunity had arrived. The German 
princes speedily detached themselves from all ties 
which bound them to either Austria or Prussia, 
and by the act of the Confederation of the Rhine, 
signed at Paris July 17, 1806, Bavaria, Wurtem- 
berg, and Baden, also several other states, sixteen 
in all, repudiated the laws of the empire, and 
Napoleon became the protector of the new con- 
federacy, which lasted until 181 3. Emperor 
Francis II. resigned the crown of the Holy 
Roman Empire on August 6, 1806, and hence- 
forth styled himself Emperor of Austria. 

525. Germany United. — After the overthrow of 
Napoleon the German states were reorganised 
as a confederation, at the head of which was the 
emperor of Austria. Matters that related to all 



THE ERA OF THE POLITICAL REVOLUTION 623 

the states, and disputes between individual mem- 
bers of the confederation, were to be settled by a 
diet formed of the representatives of the thirty- 
nine states. Each state was independent so far as 
its own affairs were concerned, each could carry 
on war with foreign states, and form alliances, 
but no action was permissible that would en- 
danger another member of the confederation. 

The rulers of the various states opposed all 
changes that would give the people a greater 
measure of liberty. The course of events now 
ran much as it had done in France. When the 
overthrow of Charles X. was followed by the 
inauguration of the "Citizen King" in France, 
the people of Germany, becoming restless under 
the pressure of governmental restraint, indulged 
in angry demonstrations against their princes, 
compelling a number of the latter to grant a 
representative government. No sooner had the 
disturbances subsided, however, than the princes 
rescinded the grants and restored affairs in the 
shape they had been before the uprising. Then 
came the formation of the so-called Customs 
Union, and with the year 1848 was ushered in 
the series of turbulent expressions of the dissatis- 
faction of the people of nearly all Europe, the 
result being the flight of Louis Philippe from 
France, the establishment of the Second Re- 
public, and the granting of constitutional govern- 
ment in most of the smaller states of Germany, 
as well as in Austria and Prussia, although this 



624 MODERN HISTORY 

was not accomplished without armed conflict 
and bloodshed. 

The next important step towards the unifica- 
tion of Germany was the so-called Seven Weeks* 
War, in 1866, when Prussia succeeded in ending 
the influence of Austria upon German affairs, 
owing to the clear foresight of Bismarck, who not 
only had prepared the country for the inevitable 
struggle, but who had also formed an alliance 
with Italy against Austria. After the peace of 
Prague, the northern states formed a confedera- 
tion, called the North German Union, again with 
Prussia as the acknowledged leader. 

Then came the Franco-Prussian War (see 
Section 518) and with it the final consummation 
of Bismarck's plans for German unity. While the 
troops of the southern and northern states were 
fighting side by side, the germs of an all-German 
spirit were developing, and before the walls of 
Paris the southern states were received into the 
union, which now took the name of the German 
Confederation. As a climax to this process of 
solidification of the bonds that were to bind all 
Germany into one nation, the king of Prussia, 
William I., at the suggestion of the king of Ba- 
varia, took upon himself the title of Emperor, 
at Versailles, and thereby the unification of 
Germany became an accomplished fact. 

526. The German Empire. — The new German 
empire differs essentially from its great rival, the 
Austrian empire, in that the sole element of 



THE ERA OF THE POLITICAL REVOLUTION 625 

union in the latter is the person of the sovereign, 
through whose hereditary rights it has been slowly- 
built up and finally moulded into the Austro-Hun- 
garian monarchy. It also differs greatly from the 
old Holy Roman Empire, in the entire absence of 
the unifying influence of the Church and of the 
principle of personal sovereignty. Its basic princi- 
ple is federation on strictly secular lines. 

We now come to the consideration of its pecul- 
iar governmental machinery. 

527. The Sovereignty of the German Empire. — In 
Germany the sovereignty does not reside in the 
emperor himself, but in the united body of Ger- 
man princes, and the three free cities. 

The emperor is at the head of a federal state 
composed of four kingdoms (Prussia, Saxony, 
Bavaria, and Wurtemberg), six grand-duchies 
(Baden, Hessen, Mecklenburg-Schwerin, Sachsen- 
Weimar, Oldenburg, and Mecklenburg-Strelitz), 
five duchies (Braunschweig, Sachsen-Meiningen, 
Anhalt, Sachsen-Coburg, and Sachsen- Altenburg) , 
seven principalities (Waldeck, Lippe, Schwarz- 
burg-Rudolstadt, Sehwarzburg- Sondershausen, 
Reuss-Schleiz, Schaumburg- Lippe, and Reuss- 
Greiz), three free cities (Bremen, Hamburg, and 
Lubeck), and the imperial domain of Alsace- 
Lorraine. 

528. The Emperor. — The king of Prussia is also 
emperor of Germany, and the office, practically 
a hereditary presidency of the federal state of 
Germany, is unalienably attached to the throne 



626 MODERN HISTORY 

of Prussia, whose occupant, be he king or regent 
only, is also emperor Ol Germany. 

The emperor summons and adjourns both 
branches of the legislature, the Bundesrath and 
the Reichstag, and he has the power to dissolve 
the Reichstag with the consent of the Bundes- 
rath. The chancellor of the empire, in whom 
the administration centres, is also chairman of the 
Bundesrath, and is appointed by the emperor, 
who can remove him at his pleasure. Minor 
appointments, as well as removals, are also within 
the imperial prerogative, and bear the counter- 
signature of the chancellor. The emperor com- 
mands the army and navy, and controls the 
foreign affairs of the empire; and, although his 
powers are strictly defined by law, he is the actual 
executive as well as representative head of the 
state, and is practically irresponsible, as he cannot 
be removed. 

In legislation the sovereignty of the empire has 
no set limits, and it covers not only the entire 
commercial and criminal law, but the civil law as 
well, and the constitution can be amended without 
consulting the individual governments of the single 
states or the people themselves, while the rights 
of the former can also be reduced by it, the only 
provision being the consent of the state concerned. 

529. The Bundesrath. — The Bundesrath is com- 
posed of representatives of the governments of the 
single states which constitute the German empire. 
This representation is according to the size of the 



THE ERA OF THE POLITICAL REVOLUTION 627 

states, Prussia having seventeen representatives, 
among whom is the imperial chancellor, who is 
also chairman of the Bundesrath ; Bavaria has six, 
Wurtemberg and Saxony four each, Baden and 
Hessen three each, Mecklenburg-Schwerin and 
Braunschweig two each, while the other seventeen 
states have one each. The Bundesrath in theory 
as well as in practice is a body of ambassadors, 
as its members are the accredited diplomatic 
agents of the governments of the states which they 
represent, and they act under instructions from 
their home governments. While their vote is 
valid even if not in accordance with previous 
instructions, they are always accountable to their 
governments for their official conduct and actions, 
and in practice they, as a rule, also occupy high 
offices in their respective states. The members 
of the Bundesrath are sent and withdrawn at 
pleasure by the governments of the states from 
which they come, and it is a custom of the small 
states to maintain joint representatives during the 
second session of each year, during which the 
business transacted is of minor importance and 
consists chiefly of routine work. In the first 
session each state must vote through its own 
representative. The votes of each state must be 
undivided and must be given as a unit, the full 
vote being cast even if only a part of its repre- 
sentatives be present. 

The Bundesrath, being the authoritative repre- 
sentative body of the sovereignty resting in the 



628 MODERN HISTOR Y 

German princes and the three free cities, con- 
sidered as one unit, is the means of expressing 
the sovereignty of the empire. The legislative 
powers of the Bundesrath are quite extensive and 
many bills originate in the Bundesrath and not in 
the lower house, the Reichstag; and, although 
the latter possesses the right to originate, it very 
seldom exercises this privilege, most of the 
important bills being prepared by the imperial 
officials and presented through the imperial chan- 
cellor to the Bundesrath. After having been 
passed by that body, they go, with the 
sanction of the Bundesrath, to the Reichs- 
tag, whence, after having been favourably acted 
upon, they are returned to the Bundesrath for 
final action. This process really gives to 
Prussia the chief initiative, and makes the 
Bundesrath the usual source of all important 
legislation. 

The administrative powers of the Bundesrath 
lie chiefly in its prerogative to superintend the 
administrative organisation of the empire, and in 
the right to elect some of the most important 
imperial officials and to vote upon the nomination 
of consuls and imperial officials who supervise the 
taxes and duties. The consent of the Bundesrath 
is also necessary to a declaration of war, except in 
case of an invasion, in which emergency the 
emperor has the right to act alone ; and this 
consent is likewise needed for the dissolving of the 
Reichstag, or for any action to coerce into 



THE ERA OF THE POLITICAL REVOLUTION 629 

obedience a state of the empire, if the latter fails 
to fulfil its federal duties. 

The Bundesrath is the highest administrative 
council of the empire, and in this capacity it con- 
stitutes the supreme administrative court of 
appeals. Its jurisdiction extends also to many 
matters beyond questions of administration. 
Disputes between two states of the empire or a 
state and the imperial government, which do 
not involve questions of private law and would 
therefore come within the sphere of jurisdiction of 
ordinary civil courts, are acted upon by the 
Bundesrath, but it has the right to delegate some 
court or experts to decide a matter which, for 
whatever reasons, it considers itself unfitted to 
sit upon as a court. 

The Bundesrath has three standing committees, 
one on Alsace-Lorraine, one on the Constitution, 
and one on the order of business, and it refers 
various matters to special committees for con- 
sideration. Besides these it has eight com- 
missions, who sit during the recesses of the 
federal chamber, acting during this period as its 
quasi representatives. Prussia is entitled to the 
presidency in each commission, with the excep- 
tion of that on foreign affairs, in which she has 
no representation. 

530. The Relative Powers of the Several States in 
the Reichstag. — The Reichstag represents the whole 
German people, and not the single states, or the 
people of the several states considered separately. 



630 MODERN HISTORY 

Representation in the Reichstag is upon the basis 
of population, one representative being allotted 
to every one hundred and thirty-one thousand 
inhabitants. Elections are by districts and the 
latter cannot include territory of more than one 
state, so that a state having less than one hundred 
and thirty-one thousand inhabitants would never- 
theless be entitled to one representative in the 
Reichstag. 

The Reichstag has about four hundred members, 
of which Prussia alone claims over three fifths, 
and they are elected for a term of five years, the 
age of eligibility being twenty-five years, which is 
also the voting age in Germany. There is one 
president, two vice-presidents, who are not 
elected for the entire duration of the session, there 
being one election at the beginning of the session, 
and another after four weeks. The officers elected 
at the second election serve for the rest of the 
session. There are no standing committees in 
the Reichstag, but sometimes temporary commit- 
tees are detailed to prepare reports on special 
matters. 

The Reichstag divides itself at the beginning 
of the session into seven sections, Abtheilungen, 
containing equal numbers of members, among 
whom is apportioned the work of verifying the 
elections and the election of the temporary com- 
mittees, each section contributing the same num- 
ber of members. The Reichstag votes the taxes 
and supervises the annual appropriation of money, 



THE ERA OF THE POLITICAL REVOLUTION 63 1 

but government bills are not referred to com- 
mittees, and as the ministers are not responsible 
to the Reichstag, there being practically no 
parliamentary responsibility in Germany, and the 
Reichstag can be dissolved by the emperor, its 
powers are merely those of control, and in a 
measure only, while the originative functions are 
chiefly with the Bundesrath. 

531. The Imperial Chancellor. — The imperial 
chancellor, the virtual supreme head of the state, 
is appointed by the emperor, who can remove 
him at pleasure, and is also the source and centre 
of the administration. He does not resign upon 
an adverse vote of the Parliament, being simply 
accountable to the laws. The position of the 
imperial chancellor may be construed as that of 
a responsible constitutional monarch, taking his 
authority from the irresponsible emperor. The 
powers of the imperial chancellor are those of the 
head of the entire administration, and include all 
such powers as are not specifically assigned to 
others. He superintends the administration of 
the imperial laws by the states, and, practically, 
the affairs of the empire are administered by 
Prussia, through the imperial chancellor, who 
generally is also the chief minister of Prussia as 
president of the Council. 

532. The Empire and its Component Stales. — The 
sovereign legislative power rests with the empire, 
but the imperial government confines itself to a 
general superintendence only ; the states, to whom 



632 MODERN HISTORY 

the imperial constitution conceded political inde- 
pendence only, being left to themselves, admin- 
ister the imperial laws, but under a systematic 
oversight exercised by the empire. Imperial 
legislation covers a broader field than any other 
central government of a federal state, and from it 
originate the laws regulating the money-issues and 
coinage — the state mints acting simply as agents of 
the empire, — laws of settlement, insurance laws, 
and the empire also supervises the railroads, posts, 
and telegraphs, although some of the states have 
retained their own semi-official semi-independent 
administration of the latter; so, for instance, 
Bavaria controls her own army, railways, posts, 
and telegraphs. 

The superintendence of the empire extends also 
to the administration of justice, and the state 
courts are organised and regulated by laws of the 
empire. The supreme court of appeals is the Im- 
perial Court, Reichsgericht, whose seat is at Leipsic. 

533. Prussia. — The empire is a creation ; Prussia 
is a growth. As an illustration of evolution in 
institutions of perfected bureaucracy, and as the 
dominant state of Germany, her governmental 
system is of special interest. 

The foundation of the kingdom of Prussia was 
laid in the beginning of the seventeenth century 
by the union of the Mark Brandenburg and the 
duchy of Prussia, Frederick William, the Great 
Elector, beginning the process of centralisation, 
which was continued by his successors; but the 



THE ERA OF THE POLITICAL REVOLUTION 633 

characteristic military features of the government, 
which presented only a very crude administrative 
organisation, were not finally transformed into a 
developed system of centralised government 
until the beginning of the nineteenth century. 
While the efforts of the Elector towards central- 
isation met with no difficulty in the towns, 
because the municipal administration was already, 
to a greater or lesser degree, subject to his will, 
the military authorities acting as his representa- 
tives, the provinces, in which there were many 
estates which had enjoyed long-established privi- 
leges, came only by successive steps under the 
control of the central power. Important in the 
process of centralisation was the organisation of 
Justice and Finance, the two distinct depart- 
ments of the latter, of War and Domains, being 
united, the General War Commissariat and the 
General Finance Directory being merged into one 
single central board, the General Financial Di- 
rectory for War and Domains, and the Local War 
Commissariats and Domains Chambers were 
united into the Chambers for War and Domains. 
This fusion was effected under Frederick William 
I., the son and successor of the first king of 
Prussia. 

The General Directory shortly became divided 
into several committees, and the latter in time 
assumed the character of ministers, and Frederick 
the Great created a separate board of councillors, 
who were in no way connected with the General 



634 MODERN HISTORY 

Directory, and special departments dependent 
upon himself. This haphazard system was brought 
into systematic order by two ministers of Fred- 
erick William III., the Chancellor Count Harden- 
berg and the Baron von Stein. 

534. The Reforms of Stein. — Baron von Stein con- 
ceived a vast number of reforms which may be 
said to have led to the development of the present 
centralised administration of Prussia. He recon- 
structed the municipal administration of the 
towns and originated the central organs of admin- 
istration by supplanting the General Directory by 
four Ministries, those of Foreign Affairs, Justice, 
Finance, and War. Later a further differentiation 
took place, and the Ministries of Ecclesiastical, 
Educational, and Sanitary Affairs (18 17), of Trade, 
Commerce, and Public Works, and of Agriculture 
(1858) were created, while in 1878 the Ministry of 
Trade, Commerce, and Public Works was split 
into two, the Ministry of Trade and Commerce, and 
the Ministry of Public Works. Baron von Stein 
wanted to give to the old-time Council of State 
the legislative control over the state's executive, 
but this plan was not adopted, Count Harden- 
berg establishing instead the Ministry of State, 
the Staatsministerium, which somewhat resembles 
the Council of State of France in regard to com- 
position and functions. 

535. Local Organisation before 1872. — Before 
1872 the provinces were divided into government 
districts and circles, and the local administrative 



THE ERA OF THE POLITICAL REVOLUTION 635 

power rested in a board established in the govern- 
ment district, while in the province a board 
exercised supervisory powers, and a superior 
president was the chief officer; and there were 
also the old-time estates, rural communes, and 
manors, still patterned after the feudal system, 
and in the country the Landrath, elected from 
among local landowners, was associated with the 
county estates, composed of county squires and 
elected representatives of the municipalities and 
rural townships. The administration of the 
towns was conducted by boards of magistrates 
chosen in popular assemblies, the latter taking 
part in all executive business, and the mayor was 
a president of the board rather than the chief 
magistrate. 

536. The County Law. — The County Law {Kreis- 
ordmmg), upon which the present system of local 
government is largely based, was enacted in 1872. 
It put the local administration on a more modern 
basis by abolishing the hereditary jurisdiction in 
the manor and the office of the Schultze, who 
hitherto had been appointed by the lord of the 
manor, or by the owner of the freehold if the 
village was a free village, and by substituting for 
the estates of the province representative bodies. 
While the office of the Landrath was retained 
under this law, the powers of the Landrath were 
decreased and he virtually became the president 
of the administrative board. The system of local 
taxation was also reconstructed. 



636 MODERN HISTORY 

537. The Legislature. — The Prussian legislature, 
or Landtag, consists of two houses, the House of 
Lords, Herrenhaus, and the House of Representa- 
tives, Abgeordnetenhaus. Both houses have equal 
rights in regard to legislative initiative, but 
financial bills are introduced in the lower house, 
the upper house passing upon the entire budget 
as a whole, and no law can be passed without the 
consent of both houses. 

The House of Lords is composed of hereditary 
princes and noblemen, life members, who are 
representatives of large landed properties and of 
universities, cities, and institutions, and of civil 
officials. The king has the right to make special 
appointments to the membership of the House of 
Lords, which is unlimited. 

The members of the House of Representatives 
are elected upon a basis of taxable property, and 
the elections are indirect, a body of electors being 
first chosen by the qualified voters in each district, 
who are divided into three classes, each of which 
represents one third of the taxable property of the 
district. The three classes elect an equal number 
of electors, who then elect the members of the 
House of Representatives. 

Members of the House of Lords must be thirty 
years of age, and to the House of Representatives 
may be elected any Prussian thirty years old and 
in possession of full citizenship. The term of 
office in the House of Representatives is five years. 

538. The Province and the Kreis (Circle). — Prus- 



THE ERA OF THE POLITICAL REVOLUTION 637 

sian local administration is based upon a division 
of the country into provinces, government dis- 
tricts, townships, and towns. The representative 
of the state in the province is the superior presi- 
dent and a Provinzialrath, while the province 
itself has as its representative the Landeshaupt- 
mann and the Provincial Landtag. The former 
have in charge all matters which are beyond the 
jurisdiction of the administration of the govern- 
ment districts, or which concern the province as 
a whole, or the imperial interests as well as the 
Prussian state itself. The superior president is 
also supervisor of the district administration, 
and decides in such conflicts involving questions 
of jurisdiction as do not come within the sphere of 
the Court of Conflicts, and has the right to annul 
any act of the Landtag in which it should have 
overstepped its jurisdiction. The orders issued 
by the superior president must bear the approval 
of the administrative council connected with him, 
the Provinzialrath. 

The Landeshauptmann is elected, by the Pro- 
vincial Landtag, and he is related to this body 
about as is the superior president to the Pro- 
vinzialrath, or the prefect in France to the Pre- 
fectural Council, he being the executive, while the 
Landtag constitutes the advisory body, but actu- 
ally the latter has the authority in most matters. 

The Provincial Landtag exercises such functions 
as the apportionment of taxes among the counties, 
the districts having no organ of self-government, 



638 MODERN HISTORY 

like the cantons in France, being merely organs of 
the central government. It also examines the 
local budget, supervises provincial property and 
the election of some officials, and can discuss all 
matters of local interest. 

Although there is in the " circle," or county, 
also a representative of the state as well as of 
the local government, there is only one set of 
functionaries, these being the Landrath and the 
County Committee. 

Local government in Prussia rests upon the 
circle, whose Diet is chosen indirectly by the 
voters, the larger towns selecting their members 
through their councils, and the smaller towns 
through electors. As the Circle Committee is 
elected by the Circle Diet, and the Landtag is also 
nominated by it, while from the united Diets of a 
province the Provincial Landtag is chosen, it may 
be said that those administrative bodies all 
emanate from the Circle Diet. The latter is 
based upon the economical and social relations of 
the people, and includes all towns within it hav- 
ing less than twenty-five thousand inhabitants. 
The Landrath is appointed by the superior presi- 
dent of the province and is associated with the 
Circle Committee, which comprises himself and 
six other members chosen by the Circle Diet. 
The Circle Committee also constitutes a judicial 
body, with the Landrath as its president, and has 
jurisdiction in cases of conflicts between public 
power and private right. 



THE ERA OF THE POLITICAL REVOLUTION 639 

M — Switzerland 

539. The Foundation of the State. — Switzerland 
not only attracts us by its traditions of romantic 
valour and heroic patriotism, but offers a history 
full of instruction respecting the formation and 
growth of free institutions. 

Switzerland was originally a defensive alliance 
formed by small parts of Germany, Italy, and 
Burgundy against the house of Habsburg, and 
after the accession of the Habsburgs to the imperial 
throne the confederation continued to dispute the 
authority of the empire, finally winning its inde- 
pendence, practically in the fifteenth, formally 
in the seventeenth century. The nucleus of the 
confederation was German, and even now, while 
three languages, German, French, and Italian, are 
officially recognised in Switzerland, the Germans 
are in a great majority. 

In 1292 the forest districts of Uri, Schwyz, and 
Unterwalden formed the defensive league which 
was the foundation of the Swiss Confederation. 
This league was enlarged by the admission of other 
districts and towns, which, while allied with the 
original members of the league, were not con- 
nected with each other, thus making the process 
of effecting a real union an extremely difficult one. 
This difficulty was further increased by the fact 
that the confederacy was made up of two distinct 
elements, namely the free and aristocratic towns 
and the democratic rural districts. 



64O MODERN HISTORY 

The Confederation was a Staatenbund, an alli- 
ance of several small independent states. The 
organisation of a federal state with central execu- 
tive, legislative, and judiciary government was not 
begun until the break-up of the old order of things 
in 1798. The idea of the Bundesstaat, or federal 
state, has since been accomplished by the first con- 
stitutional revision after the Sonderbund War in 
1847, and the second revision of the federal con- 
stitution in 1874. 

540. The Sonderbund War. — By the so-called 
pact of 1 81 5, Geneva, Valais, Neuchatel, and some 
dependent territories were admitted into the union, 
the membership of which was thus increased to 
include twenty-two small states, or cantons, and 
although they are widely different from each 
other in religion, race, and language, together they 
form a union which is steadily developing into a 
nation. 

A great stride towards unity was made after the 
Sonderbund War, which arose out of questions of 
religion connected with the terms of the peace 
pact of 1 81 5. This pact contained a clause where- 
by the rights of the monasteries in the Roman 
Catholic cantons were guaranteed. However, 
democratic reforms were soon instituted and 
sweeping changes were made, especially in Zurich, 
which caused a reaction to set in in 1839. In the 
following year the radicals had a popular majority, 
and the clerical party stirred up a revolt. The 
rising was quelled, but now the radicals had the 



THE ERA OF THE POLITICAL REVOLUTION 64I 

excuse for carrying the vote to suppress the eight 
monasteries in the canton. This was opposed to 
the pact of 1815, and as the Diet decided that the 
terms of the pact must be adhered to, a com- 
promise was eventually agreed upon, by which 
only four, instead of eight, of the monasteries 
were to be suppressed. 

Now the seven Catholic cantons, Uri, Schwyz, 
Unterwalden, Luzern, Freiburg, Zug, and Wallis, 
formed the Sonderbund, or Separate League, and 
demanded the restoration of the monasteries. 
The deputies from the seceded cantons did not 
withdraw until 1847, and a short but decisive war 
ensued, lasting only eighteen days, in which the 
rebellious cantons were forced to surrender. The 
result of the war was a complete revision of the 
constitution ; and while the new constitution, 
which was again revised in 1874, still reserves 
many rights to the individual cantons, the Con- 
federation ceased to be a Staatenbund, and by the 
establishing of a fully organised central govern- 
ment was transformed into the Bundesstaat, or 
federal state. 

541. Character of the Swiss State. — While Switzer- 
land has developed from a union of sovereign 
states joined by a treaty into a single federal state 
with an organised central government, the process 
of centralisation has been carried only as far as 
was permissible without destroying the char- 
acter of the Swiss state, in which the cantons are 
not divisions of the country for administrative 
41 



642 MODERN HISTORY 

purposes, but actually, within certain limits, 
independent states, living political communities. 

542. Cantonal Legislatures. — The legislature of 
the cantons, called the Great Council {Grosser 
Rath), consists of but one single house. In four 
cantons, Uri, Clarus, Appenzell, and Unterwalden, 
the legislature, or Landgemeinde, is constituted 
by the assembly of all the voters ; in the other 
eighteen cantons the legislature is representative, 
the members being selected by the secret ballot, 
and a direct popular vote. The term of office 
varies from one to six years, and the number of 
representatives is proportionate to the number of 
inhabitants, there being one to about nine hundred 
and ninety-four inhabitants. 

The legislatures of the cantons elect most of the 
administrative officers, and as they exercise the 
right of superintendence of the officers thus 
selected, they virtually retain the executive con- 
trol, the committee to which the executive power 
is intrusted being also regarded as a committee of 
the legislatures. As the number of the people in 
each canton is not very large, they actually parti- 
cipate in the government by exercising a certain 
control over the legislative bodies, by the initia- 
tive by petition, and by the referendum, and in 
some of the cantons the people can decide by 
vote the question of dissolving the legislature. 

543. The Cantonal Executive.— The cantonal 
executive is not individual but collegial, being 
vested in a commission variously named as the 



THE ERA OF THE POLITICAL REVOLUTION 643 

Standeskommission, or the Regierungsrath, whose 
members are in most of the cantons elected di- 
rectly by the people, while in some they are 
nominated by the legislative council. The term 
of office is short, but re-election is the practice, so 
that the executive is not subject to frequent 
change. 

The Executive Council consists of from five to 
seven members. The council of the canton of 
Bern has nine members. The Executive Commis- 
sion is regarded as a committee of the legislature, 
in fact takes part in its sessions, and originates 
most of the measures submitted, while it also 
constitutes an advisory board in important 
matters. The Executive Commission, as a rule, 
does not represent a single political party, the 
members being drawn from the several political 
parties of the canton, and it does not resign if 
measures proposed by it are turned down by an 
adverse vote. 

544. The Initiative and the Referendum. — Every 
canton of Switzerland, except Geneva, has the 
right of initiating constitutional reforms by peti- 
tion, and they can all exercise this privilege in 
regard to revisions of ordinary laws or the enact- 
ment of new ones, excepting three cantons only, 
namely Freiburg, Valais, and Luzern. However, 
this right of initiative has been used very little, it 
having yielded to the referendum. The petition 
of the people must be signed by fifty thousand 
voters if the constitution of the Federation is to 



644 MODERN HISTORY 

be amended, and the number of signatures neces- 
sary in the cantons for the initiation of changes in 
the cantonal constitutions varies from five to six 
thousand. The propositions in regard to changes 
in ordinary laws may be specifically stated in the 
petitions, and these must then be presented 
by the legislature for a popular vote, and if ac- 
cepted, must be included in the statutes. If the 
constitution is to be amended, the petition may 
either be couched in general terms, in which the 
legislature must formulate it and then submit it to 
the vote of the people, or, if the legislature dis- 
approves of the proposed change, the question 
may be submitted to the electors for q vote. If 
passed, it becomes the duty of the legislature to 
formulate it and then again submit it to a vote. 
If the proposed amendment is specified in the 
petition, it takes the same course as a change in 
the ordinary laws. The referendum is the privi- 
lege of the people of Switzerland to have all 
important bills passed by the legislature referred 
to them for confirmation or rejection. In some of 
the cantons the referendum is conditional — that 
is, the laws have to be referred to the people only if 
a demand to that effect is made by petition 
— but in the others all changes in the laws of 
consequence have to be submitted to the popular 
vote. 

The referendum is obligatory in the case of all 
constitutional amendments, whether federal or 
cantonal, and in most of the cantons also in the 



THE ERA OF THE POLITICAL REVOLUTION 645 

case of money appropriations above a certain 
stipulated sum. 

545. The Federal Government of Switzerland. — 
The Federal government of Switzerland has un- 
usual interest for the citizens of the United States 
on account of its points of similarity and differ- 
ence when compared with the government of the 
United States. 

The executive functions of the Confederation, as 
in the cantons, are not assigned to one single 
individual, but to an executive board, or com- 
mission, called the Federal Council (Bundesrath) , 
which is composed of seven members, chosen for 
a term of three years. Each member of the 
Federal Council must be elected from a different 
canton, and its president and vice-president serve 
one single term of one year only, the constitution 
prohibiting re-election to the same office. How- 
ever, the vice-president may succeed the presi- 
dent, and this course is usually taken. 

While the president of the Federal Council 
occupies a position of considerable dignity, his is 
not the power of the chief executive. He receives 
a salary somewhat larger than that allotted to his 
associates in the Council, receives the representa- 
tives of foreign powers, and in diplomatic inter- 
course is addressed as "his Excellency," but in 
fact he is merely the chairman of the Federal 
Council, which constitutes a body of ministers. 

In the administration of executive business the 
collegiate character could not be entirely strictly 



646 MODERN HISTORY 

adhered to, and each member of the Federal 
Council practically constitutes the ministerial 
head of one of the seven departments, namely the 
Departments of Foreign Affairs, Interior, War, 
Justice, Finance, Industry and Agriculture, and 
Posts and Railways. 

The functions of the Federal Council bring it 
into close communication with the legislature, 
the Federal Council originating measures to be 
introduced, and being to some extent controlled 
by the legislature, as its annual reports of the con- 
duct of the administration give to the lawmaking 
body the opportunity of criticism, as well as of 
suggesting measures for the improvement of the 
same. While the legislature has the power to 
annul any action of the executive, this privilege 
is seldom exercised, the legislature confining itself 
to offering suggestions before action has been 
taken by the Federal Council. 

The Federal Council appoints such officers as 
are not specifically provided for by law, manages 
federal finances and interests, and attends to the 
foreign affairs of the Confederation. Besides, it 
also exercises some judicial powers, examining the 
agreements between the cantons themselves, or 
with foreign powers, and many laws depend U] on 
the Federal Council as to final acceptance. The 
executive has also the power to call out troops in 
case of necessity, and exercises general powers of 
superintendence and intervention in cantonal 
affairs . 



THE ERA OF THE POLITICAL REVOLUTION 647 

546. The Relations of the Executive to the Legisla- 
tive Body. — While they are not members of the 
legislature, the members of the Federal Council 
are privileged to take part in all its proceedings 
and debates, and they exercise, to a large extent, 
the prerogative of initiative and of expressing 
their opinion upon bills being considered by the 
legislature, before they are acted upon. There 
is no parliamentary responsibility in Switzerland, 
and if any of the measures introduced in the legis- 
lature by the Federal Council meet with an adverse 
vote, this does not in the least affect the tenure of 
office of the Executive Council ; and within the 
last fifty years there have been only two cases 
where the defeat of a measure introduced by the 
Federal Council was followed by resignation. 

547. The Legislative Body. — The legislative powers 
in Switzerland belong to the National Council 
(Nationalrath) and the Council of State {Staen- 
derath), and these two separate legislative bodies 
assemble together for the performance of certain 
electoral and judicial functions, meeting as the 
Federal Assembly. 

There are one hundred and seventy-four 
members of the National Council, elected from 
fifty-two federal electoral districts (Wahlkreis), 
there being about one member to every twenty 
thousand inhabitants The federal electoral dis- 
tricts are not confined to single cantons, as 
in Germany, but include territory crossing the 
cantonal boundary lines. Any canton having less 



648 MODERN HISTORY 

than twenty thousand inhabitants is nevertheless 
entitled to one representative in the National 
Council. The term of office in the National 
Council is three years, and the rules governing the 
election of its president and vice-president are 
similar to those of the Federal Council. The 
Council of State (Staenderath) has forty-four 
members, two being elected from each of the 
twenty-two cantons, the latter regulating the 
term of office, salaries, and all special character- 
istics of the relation and powers of the members as 
representatives. The president and vice-presi- 
dent are chosen by the Council itself, there being 
a rule in force prohibiting the election of the vice- 
president for two successive terms from the same 
canton from which the president of the preceding 
term was chosen. 

548. The Federal Assembly. — The functions of 
the Federal Assembly (Bundesversammlung) are 
the election of the Federal Council, the judges, 
chancellor, and the generals of the army of the 
Confederation ; the exercise of the right of pardon, 
and the decision in cases involving the jurisdiction 
between federal authorities, the Federal Assembly 
acting in the same capacity as the French and 
German Courts of Conflicts, decisions of the 
Federal Council being subject to appeal to the 
Federal Assembly. 

The Federal Assembly (Bundesvcrsamniliuig) 
consists of the National Council (Nationalrath) 
and of the Council of State (Staenderath), acting 



THE ERA OF THE POLITICAL REVOLUTION 649 

in joint assembly for the exercise of the functions 
pertaining to the Federal Assembly, which arc 
both electoral and judicial. 

549. The Swiss Judicial System. — The jurisdiction 
in administrative cases is vested in the Federal 
Council, and it covers questions of trade privileges, 
taxes, duties, religion, patents, validity of elec- 
tions, decisions as to military service, calling out 
of the militia, administration of schools, etc. The 
decisions of the Federal Council are subject to 
appeal to the legislature or to the Federal Court. 

Until 1874, when the revision of the constitu- 
tion gave to the Federal Court some actual 
influence and dignity, its judicial powers had been 
quite limited. Even now the influence of the Fed- 
eral Assembly is considerable, although the new 
constitution defines the organisation and the 
privileges of the Federal Court. The Federal 
Court is composed of nine judges, elected by the 
Federal Assembly for a term of six years, and two 
of the members are chosen by the Federal As- 
sembly for the positions of president and vice- 
president of the Federal Court. 

The jurisdiction of the Federal Court extends 
over public law, disputes between cantons, con- 
stitutional rights of citizens, and in private law it 
has jurisdiction in all cases involving sums larger 
than three thousand francs. It also constitutes 
a court of appeals from the decisions of the can- 
tonal courts, while case's between cantons and pri- 
vate individuals, and between the Confederation 



650 MODERN HISTORY 

and cantons, are also submitted to it for adju- 
dication. In criminal law the Federal Court has 
jurisdiction in cases of high treason, international 
law, political crimes, and in some cases it may con- 
stitute the judicial tribunal to act upon offences 
committed by federal officers. The Federal 
Court also acts as a court of appeals from the 
decisions of the Federal Council in administrative 
questions. In the cantons there are justices of the 
peace, courts of the first instance, the District 
Courts {Bezirk- or Untergericht) , and the Supreme- 
Court (Kantongericht) . 

The justices of the peace act as mediators and, 
failing as such, as magistrates; petty police cases 
are decided by the District Courts, and criminal 
cases by jury courts, with Supreme Court justices 
as presidents, or by criminal courts without juries. 

N — Sweden and Norway 

550. Political History. — The early institutions of 
Sweden and Norway were Germanic in character, 
the country being divided into several parts, held 
together loosely by an incomplete federal author- 
ity. The most powerful family in each country 
in the course of time succeeded in establishing 
itself in the kingly power, and, while the office of 
the king was elective, a member of the dominant 
family was usually chosen. Upon different occa- 
sions both Sweden and Norway were united under 
the rule of one single monarch, by intermarriage or 



THE ERA OF THE POLITICAL REVOLUTION 65 1 

treaty, and Danish influence and power established 
that country as a participant in the affairs of 
Sweden and Norway by the so-called Union of 
Calmar, in 1397, by which the three kingdoms 
of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden were united 
under Queen Margaret of Denmark, the wife 
of Hakon, King of Sweden and Norway. The 
treaty provided that each country should con- 
tinue its own laws and retain its institutions, but 
this treaty was violated and resulted in many 
jealousies and wars. 

The Swedes were especially dissatisfied with the 
foreign yoke imposed upon them, and they 
repeatedly rose in revolt, succeeding in 1523, 
under the able leadership of Gustav Eriksson 
(Vasa), in gaining their independence from Den- 
mark. Norway remained united with Denmark 
until 1 814. 

Under the old constitution of Sweden there had 
been associated with the king a Council of Nobles, 
and the Riksdag, the assembly of the four estab- 
lished orders, the nobles, the clergy, the burghers, 
and the peasants; and- this association was such 
that until the present century the constitutional 
history of Sweden represents a continuous strife, 
success attending variously either of the contend- 
ing parties, between the king and the council and 
the Riksdag. By the Convention of Moss, in 
1 814, and the decision of the Congress of Vienna, 
Norway was separated from Denmark and joined 
to Sweden. Norway's acceptance of this action 



652 MODERN HISTORY 

was rather compulsory. The Norwegians rose in 
revolt against the attempt to force upon them 
outside control, and for a short time Norway 
assumed the position of an independent kingdom, 
elected Kristian king of Norway, and framed for 
herself a liberal constitution. The resignation of 
King Kristian was brought about shortly, and 
Bernadotte, with English assistance, compelled 
Norway to accept the king of Sweden, Karl XIII. , 
as her sovereign, and the Convention of Moss was 
ratified in November, 1814. However, Norway 
was permitted to retain the new constitution, 
which she had adopted at Eidsvold in May, 
1 81 4. This constitution effected the establishing 
in Norway of a more simple and liberal govern- 
ment than that of Sweden, where the old con- 
stitutional arrangements were retained until 1866, 
thus making the king's power most potential. In 
1866 the constitution of Sweden was also revised, 
no doubt in consequence of the influence of the 
democratic ideas embodied in the constitutional 
laws of Norway. 

551. The Fundamental Laws of Sweden. — The de- 
scription of the laws of Sweden and Norway in- 
cluded in this and the next section applies to the 
time preceding the separation of the union that 
had existed between Sweden and Norway up to 
the spring of 1905, when the Norwegian legisla- 
ture declared its intention to terminate the union 
and to make provision for the individual repre- 
sentation of Norway in foreign countries. Whether 



THE ERA OF THE POLITICAL REVOLUTION 653 

this intended division of the two states will be 
permanent cannot at this date be predicted ; nor 
is there any positive news available as to whether 
Norway will henceforth be a separate kingdom or 
a republic. 

The fundamental laws of Sweden recognise a 
division of the governmental powers into execu- 
tive and legislative only, the judicial powers 
being supposed to be vested in the king. These 
fundamental laws are not a single written-out 
constitution, but consist in part of the laws per- 
taining to the ' succession to the throne, enacted 
during the change of the dynasty in 1807, when 
Bernadotte was chosen as successor to the throne 
occupied by Karl XIII., who had no children. 
The laws passed in February, 18 to, regulated the 
legislative business, retaining the four estates; 
and these, with the laws guaranteeing the free- 
dom of the press, passed in 1810, and the laws of 
1866, by which the clumsy system of the four 
estates was abolished and two houses established 
instead, are part of the fundamental laws of 
Sweden. In Sweden as well as in Norway the 
king exercised not only the prerogative of general 
oversight, but many of the administrative details 
were also assigned to him, the ministers being 
councillors of state rather than the directing 
heads of the departments. There are seven 
ministers, as follows: Foreign Affairs, Interior, 
Justice, Finance, War, Marine, and Educational 
and Ecclesiastical Affairs. At the head of the 



654 MODERN HISTORY 

ministers is the prime minister, who has no 
special portfolio. The ministers can take active 
part in the proceedings of the Riksdag, have the 
right to vote and to initiate legislation, exercising 
this right in the name of the king. Their respon- 
sibility is not only to the king, as in Germany, nor 
to the legislature only, as in France and England, 
but may be said to occupy a position about half- 
way between them. In cases of political dis- 
agreement between the ministers and the legisla- 
ture the ministers usually resign in consequence. 

Every decree signed by the king must be counter- 
signed by the minister whose affairs it concerns, and 
he must take the opinion of his ministers upon 
public questions. Administrative laws, regulat- 
ing trade, commerce, manufacture, as well as 
police regulations and vagrancy laws are also exclu- 
sively formulated by the king, who is empowered 
to adopt framed rules referring to building and 
sanitary precautions and protection against fire. 

The legislative powers are exercised by the 
Riksdag, which consists of two chambers, as 
in other governments, there being one marked 
difference, however, as both of the chambers are 
representative and there is no House of Lords. 
In the upper house there are one hundred and fifty 
members, chosen in the proportion of one mem- 
ber to every thirty thousand inhabitants, for a 
term of nine years. The members are elected by 
the councils of the towns, and the representative 
bodies of the counties. The qualifications re- 



THE ERA OF THE POLITICAL REVOLUTION 655 

quired for eligibility to the upper house include 
the possession of taxable property to the value of 
twenty-two thousand dollars for at least three 
years previous to the election, or an income of at 
least eleven hundred dollars per annum. The 
lower house has two hundred and thirty members, 
the proportion of representation being one member 
to every forty thousand inhabitants in the rural 
districts, and one member to every ten thousand 
inhabitants in the towns. They serve for a term 
of three years, and are elected by the electors of 
the towns and the rural districts. 

552. The Fundamental Laws of Norway. — The 
fundamental laws of Norway consist of the Con- 
vention of Moss, adopted in November, 1814, of 
their own liberal constitution framed at Eidsvold 
in May, 181 4, and the liberal Riks-Acten of 181 5, 
the latter being the agreement drawing the two 
countries together under one sovereign. This 
law Sweden regarded merely as a treaty, while 
Norway embodied it in her fundamental laws. 

The king occupies in Norway the same or nearly 
the same position in relation to the Council of 
Ministers as he does in Sweden, but the fact that 
the king is absent in Sweden gives some additional 
powers to the ministers, because this necessitates 
their exercising a larger part of the governmental 
authority, the king's power to reverse their 
actions being limited by law. 1 

1 These paragraphs refer to the status antedating the sepa- 
ration of 1905. 



656 MODERN HISTORY 

There are seven ministerial departments: Ec- 
clesiastical Affairs, Interior, Justice, War and 
Navy, Public Works, Finance and Customs, and 
Audit. Norway has hitherto had no department 
of Foreign Affairs. 

The Council of State in Norway consists of two 
parts, namely the Minister of State and two 
councillors, who accompany the king, and whom 
the latter must consult upon Norwegian affairs 
while he is in Sweden ; the second part being the 
prime minister, who may also have a portfolio, 
and the other ministers. 

The king's legislative powers are more limited 
than they are in Sweden, and, while he may issue 
some decrees while the legislature is not in session, 
these decrees are in force only until the legislature 
assembles again. The king's veto is not abso- 
lute, as in Sweden, and if a bill vetoed by him is 
passed by three successive sessions of the legis- 
lature the bill becomes a law regardless of the 
king's veto. 

The relation of the Norwegian ministers to the 
legislature is about the same as in Sweden, but, 
while they have a right to sit in the legislature 
and to initiate legislation, they do not vote, and if 
defeated, there is no established custom requiring 
their resignation in consequence of such defeat. 

The Norwegian legislature, the Storthing, is 
practically a single body, acting as such upon all 
constitutional and financial questions, and for the 
decision of all cases where its subdivisions have 



THE ERA OF THE POLITICAL REVOLUTION 6$? 

failed to agree upon measures submitted, but for 
all ordinary bills it is divided into two sections, 
the Lagthing, and the Odelsthing. There are 
one hundred and fourteen members, serving for 
three years, one third of the membership being 
returned by the towns, and two thirds by the 
rural districts. The elections are indirect, and 
property qualifications are required for the right 
of franchise. 

The division of the Storthing into the Lagthing 
and the Odelsthing is made as soon as the legisla- 
ture has assembled, one fourth of its members 
being selected, by its own vote, for the Lagthing, 
which constitutes something like an upper cham- 
ber, or revisory body, while the remainder 
constitutes the Odelsthing, which originates all 
legislative business. 

553. The Common Government Before Separation. 
— Before the proposed separation was announced 
by the Storthing, in the early part of 1905, the 
king represented the common government of 
Sweden and Norway, as both were separate 
kingdoms, bound together only through the per- 
son of the sovereign. The relations of united 
Sweden and Norway with foreign countries con- 
stituted practically the only affairs common to 
both countries, and the king's power in foreign 
affairs included the declaration of war, concluding 
of peace, the entering into and dissolving of 
alliances, the sending of and recalling of repre- 
sentatives at foreign courts, etc., and he acted 
42 



6$8 MODERN HISTORY 

through the Swedish Minister of Foreign Affairs, as 
Norway had no such department. 

Such other affairs as were of interest to both 
countries, but which did not come within the 
power of the king, were decided by legislation 
adopted by the different houses of both Sweden 
and Norway. 

Whenever the Council of State of either Sweden 
or Norway had to consider questions of interest to 
the other kingdom, the Council had to be rein- 
forced by three councillors from the same. 
In Sweden the Norwegian minister resident 
and the two councillors who regularly accom- 
panied the king were called in, while in Nor- 
way three Swedish ministers had "to be present. 

In the spring of 1905, Norway's legislature 
declared its intention of severing the connexion 
with Sweden, and so informed the king of the 
latter country, who hitherto had been its own 
sovereign as well. The question as to whether a 
scion of the house of Bernadotte will be invited to 
occupy the throne made vacant through Norway's 
action, whether some prince of another royal 
family will receive the call, or whether some 
pending negotiations will end in a reconciliation 
and the re-establishment of the union, is still in 
abeyance. 

There seems to be even a possibility that Nor- 
way will take rank among the nations of Europe 
as a republic. 1 

' Since this was written the Norwegians have declared 
themselves for a monarchical government, and Prince Charles 
of Denmark has been invited and has accepted the call to 
the vacant throne of Norway. 



the era of the political revolution 659 
— Italy 

554. Italy in the Nineteenth Century. — By the deci- 
sion of the Congress of Vienna, Italy was put into 
a very degrading position, the former common- 
wealths not being allowed to restore their institu- 
tions, and most of the small principalities being 
handed over to princes of various royal houses, 
who endeavoured to keep their domains in the con- 
dition that had prevailed before the revolution. 
The tyrannical rule and reactionary policy adopted 
by these rulers caused wide-spread dissatisfaction, 
which finally culminated in 1820 in the so-called 
Carbonari uprising. King Ferdinand, the ruler 
of Naples and Sicily, was compelled to give to his 
subjects a constitution, which is known as the 
Spanish constitution of 1812. Prince Metternich, 
the Austrian prime minister, decided that Aus- 
trian interests were concerned, the exclusion of 
liberal influences from Lombardy and Venetia 
being possible only by the suppression of all 
liberal tendencies in their inception wherever in 
Italy they might occur. In accordance with this 
view an Austrian army was dispatched to subdue 
the revolutionists, and Ferdinand was restored in 
his former authority. 

A similar revolt broke out in Piedmont. King 
Victor Emmanuel I. refused to yield to the de- 
mands of the people, and resigned his crown in fa- 
vour of his brother Charles Felix, who, by threaten- 
ing to summon the Austrian troops, accomplished 



660 MODERN HISTORY 

the termination of the movement. Through the 
influence of the power of Austria, Italy was thus 
kept in submission for fully ten years. 

In 1830 the revolution in France caused a repeti- 
tion of the scenes of 1 820-1 821, but the uprising 
had the same result, the Austrian troops succeed- 
ing in quelling the disturbances by force of arms. 
This second interference of a foreign power in 
their internal affairs caused the feeling of hatred 
against the foreign meddlers to grow stronger and 
stronger, and in 1848 another signal was given for 
the revolt. However, Italy's dream of liberty 
and unity was not to be realised as yet, and the 
Austrians again subjugated the rebellious people, 
while France also interfered, prompted mostly by 
jealousy of Austria. By the autumn of 1849 the 
rebellion was totally crushed, and many of the 
liberal leaders were executed, imprisoned, or 
exiled. While the results of this third revolution 
were practically nil, the Italian patriots, who 
hitherto had been divided into three different 
parties, each of whom wished to liberate Italy 
(but each of whom aimed at a different national 
organisation, one party wanting a republic, the 
second a confederation of the various states under 
the leadership of the Pope, and the third being 
desirous of establishing a constitutional monarchy 
with the king of Sardinia at the head), now joined 
hands and agreed that the kingdom of Sardinia 
was to be the nucleus of a free and united Italy. 

555. United Italy. — Victor Emmanuel II., the 



THE ERA OF THE POLITICAL REVOLUTION 66 1 

king of Sardinia, was the man to whom the 
patriots now turned in the hope that he would 
realise their dreams of liberty and unity. Count 
Cavour, Victor Emmanuel's great minister, and the 
famed Garibaldi were the men who rendered the 
most valuable and effective services in the en- 
deavours to establish the unification of Italy. In 
1859 Count Cavour sent a note to Austria, to the 
effect that unless Austria granted to Lombardy 
and Venetia free government, and ceased to inter- 
fere in the affairs of the rest of Italy, war would be 
declared against her. Austria refused to grant 
the demand and war followed, the Sardinians being 
aided in the struggle by French troops. The war 
lasted until the following year. Austria retained 
Venice, but Sardinia received the greater part, of 
Lombardy. Tuscany, Parma, Modena, and Ro- 
magna were united with the kingdom of Sardinia. 

In i860 a revolt broke out in the kingdom of 
Naples and Sicily, and while the king of Sardinia 
dared not offer direct assistance, for fear of dis- 
pleasing Austria and France, Garibaldi, at the 
head of a band of volunteers, cet sail for Sicily, 
drove the troops of the king from the island, and, 
crossing over to the mainland, marched into 
Naples, being hailed by the populace as their 
deliverer. Naples and Sicily were then annexed 
to the Sardinian kingdom, which was now 
named the "Kingdom of Italy." 

In 1866 the Italians took advantage of the 
engagement of Austria in the north, where the 



662 MODERN HISTORY 

Seven Weeks' War had broken out, and added 
Venetia to the kingdom of Italy. Only Rome 
was now lacking to the complete unification of 
Italy. When the French republic was established, 
Victor Emmanuel was notified by France that that 
country would no longer sustain the papal power, 
and he promptly gave notice to the Pope that 
Rome would henceforth be considered the capi- 
tal of the kingdom of Italy. Rome was occupied 
by the Italian troops, and Victor Emmanuel 
entered the city and took up his residence 
there. 

556. The King of Italy and the Pope. — The exten- 
sion of the authority of the Italian government 
over the papal states took away from the Pope the 
last vestige of temporal power, but he retained 
his spiritual authority. So far as the relations of 
the Pope to the king of Italy are concerned, there 
always has been considerable friction, the Pope 
at first refusing to acknowledge the loss of his 
temporal power; but in 1871 the Italian Parlia- 
ment passed the so-called papal guarantees, which 
defined the position of the Pope to the kingdom of 
Italy. There is even the hope that other steps 
towards a reconciliation with the Italian govern- 
ment will be taken by the present incumbent of 
the papal chair, who has shown a disposition to 
make possible a final solution of the difficult 
problem of the mutual relations between the Pope 
and the king of Italy. 



THE ERA OF THE POLITICAL REVOLUTION 663 

P — England 

557. England in the Nineteenth Century. — The 
results of the revolutions of 1790, 1830, and 1848 in 
England were the various reform measures which 
were introduced in response to the demands of 
the people. The French Revolution of 1790 at 
first gave an impulse to the liberal movement in 
England, but the terrors that accompanied the 
establishment of the French republic so frightened 
the English liberals that no organised movement 
to enforce their demands was attempted, and the 
feeling even spread throughout England that 
liberal sentiments were dangerous and revolu- 
tionary. After the terrors of the French Revolu- 
tion had been forgotten, liberal sentiments again 
began to find listeners, the people complaining 
that they had no part in the government, although 
it claimed to be a government of the people. 
Instead of opposing their demands, the English 
government prevented all outbreaks of the liberal 
tendencies into a revolutionary movement by the 
timely granting of the demands of the democ- 
racy, so that at the present time England is a 
monarchy in form only. 

The first step towards a liberal government was 
the granting of the Reform Bill in 1832, which 
changed the electoral law of the kingdom; the 
right of franchise was given to the fourth class, or 
the masses, by the Reform Bill of 1867, and this 
was even further extended by Gladstone in 1884. 



664 MODERN HISTORY 

The initiative towards securing these privileges 
was taken in 1848 by the so-called Chartists, but 
after some riotous demonstrations the organisa- 
tion fell to pieces. 

The principal event in India in the nineteenth 
century was the so-called Sepoy mutiny (1857- 
1858). The immediate causes were, the discontent 
among the native princes, who had been deposed, 
and the growing conviction among the natives 
that their religion was endangered. 

The revolt broke out in Bengal. The native 
troops fell upon their English officers and mur- 
dered them, the cities of Delhi and Cawnpore 
were seized, and the English populace massacred. 
However, many of the native regiments remained 
loyal to England, and with their aid the rebellion 
was suppressed. 

In 1 80 1, after a revolt had been subdued in 
Ireland, the Irish Parliament was merged into the 
Parliament in London. Ever since that time the 
question of legislative independence for Ireland 
has been the leading question in English politics. 
The Irish bitterly resented the act of the Eng- 
lish which deprived them of their independent 
legislature, and in 1841 Daniel O'Connell nearly 
incited Ireland to another revolt, but the move- 
ment was suppressed. In 1886 Gladstone intro- 
duced a bill granting Home Rule to Ireland, 
which led to a bitter debate in Parliament ; and 
to-day the question still remains unsettled. 

While the pretext upon which Russia began the 



THE ERA OF THE POLITICAL REVOLUTION 665 

war against Turkey in 1853 was the refusal of the 
sultan to recognise the czar as the protector of all 
the Greek Christians in Turkey, the real cause 
was his desire to oust the sultan from Europe and 
to place himself in possession of the key to the 
Black Sea, the Dardanelles. The preserving of 
the integrity of the Turkish empire was a matter 
of vital interest to England, as the means of 
keeping her hated rival from attaining her object 
in regard to the Bosporus and the Dardanelles, 
which would have put her in control of affairs 
in Asia. Thus when the sultan appealed to the 
Western powers for help, England readily joined 
France in granting the request, and participated 
in the Crimean War, from 1854 until 1856. 

In 1882 England sent an expedition into Egypt 
to suppress a mutinous uprising against the Khe- 
dive. In 1885 a second expedition had to he 
sent out, because the Soudanese were threatening 
the Egyptian garrisons in the Soudan. Lord 
Wolseley was again placed in command of the 
English forces, and led the expedition to the 
relief of Khartoum, where Gordon was hemmed 
in by the forces of the mahdi. Khartoum fell 
before the expedition reached its destination, and 
the English troops were withdrawn from the 
Soudan, the greater part of which was abandoned 
to the Arabs. 

Q — The Government of England 

558. The British Government of the Present Time. 



666 MODERN HISTORY 

— The British system is the great type of parlia- 
mentary government and may be said to be the 
model of all Europe to-day. 

The English executive consists of the sovereign 
and Cabinet of ministers. Real executive au- 
thority rests with the Cabinet, although in law 
the Cabinet constitutes an advisory board only, 
the government being conducted in the king's 
name. 

559. Influence of Parliament upon the Executive. 
— The Parliament, specifically the House of Com- 
mons, exercises great influence upon the English 
executive, inasmuch as it claims the right to 
direct in the name of the people, and the ministers 
constitute, in effect, only a committee of the 
majority of the House of Commons, as they are 
always chosen upon recommendation of the 
recognised leader of the political party having 
the majority in the lower house. 

The ministers are responsible to Parliament, 
and are expected, as members of the houses, with 
full privileges to participate in their proceedings, 
to explain and give reasons for their ministerial 
policy; but all important legislation is initiated 
by the ministers, so that the efficiency of Parlia- 
ment, in a measure, is made dependent on the 
Cabinet. 

When a new Cabinet is to be organised the king 
sends for the leader of the majority in the House of 
Commons and requests him to form a Cabinet. If 
the leader is certain of the approval of his party, 



THE ERA OF THE POLITICAL REVOLUTION 667 

he accepts the commission, and selects, after due 
consultation with the prominent members of his 
party, such men as he wishes to nominate for the 
various offices. The members of the House of 
Commons cannot accept the commission as min- 
isters before they have secured the approval of 
their constituents. They must resign their seats 
and at once seek a re-election, as members of the 
Parliament and as ministers. In such cases the 
opoosite political party, as a rule, does not contest 
their seats, and the proceedings are hardly more 
than a mere formality. 

The Cabinet must keep the Parliament informed 
of their course of action in all important affairs of 
state, except such as cannot be in prudence made 
public, and if the House of Commons fails to 
approve of any important measure adopted or 
proposed by the Cabinet, or if it passes a vote of 
censure, the custom is firmly established by pre- 
cedent that the ministers must resign, as a whole ; 
but if the Cabinet is of the opinion that the House 
of Commons has not acted in a spirit which would 
be certain to meet with the approval of their con- 
stituents, it can advise the king to dissolve the 
House and order a re-election, and upon the vote 
of the new House would then depend the con- 
tinuance of the tenure of office of the ministers. 

In special cases, where the responsibility for 
some objectionable official action can be fixed upon 
one of the ministers, who may have acted without 
the outspoken approval of his colleagues, the 



668 MODERN HISTORY 

dismissal of this particular minister may be brought 
about instead of the -resignation of the entire 
Cabinet. 

560. The Evolution of the Five Offices of State. — 
The five offices of state are the Home Office, the 
Foreign Office, the Colonial Office, the War Office, 
and the India Office. 

The Home Office advises the king with regard 
to the granting of pardons, superintends the 
constabulary and the administration of prisons, 
and has also some control over the local magis- 
trates. 

The Foreign Office exercises the functions per- 
taining to the relations with foreign powers. 

The Colonial Office attends to such affairs 
relating to the English colonies as are not subject 
to the governmental authority of the colonies 
themselves. 

The War Office manages the military estab- 
lishment. 

The India Office administers directly the affairs 
of India, excepting some native states having 
practically independent local government, over 
which it exercises superintendence and control. 

Very early in the process of constitutional 
development there was established the office of a 
principal secretary of state, who at first was only 
a confidential adviser of the king. Later the 
office assumed a more recognised character, and 
the multiplication of its duties made the appoint- 
ment of a second secretary of state necessary, 



THE ERA OF THE POLITICAL REVOLUTION 669 

and finally three more secretaries were added. 
All five principal secretaries of state hold 
theoretically one and the same office, and are 
empowered to perform each other's duties; in 
practice, however, each is the head, of a separate 
department, each of the five offices having a 
principal secretary of state. 

561. The Privy Council. — The Privy Council at 
first was a small body of confidential advisers of 
the king, selected out of the permanent council. 

This council possessed at one time practically 
the chief administrative as well as executive 
authority ; its functions as an advisory board to 
the king have been superseded, however, by the 
Cabinet, and it has not been asked for political 
advice for two centuries. Its executive functions 
have been transferred to the departments, and it 
takes no part in the functions of the ministers; 
still the ministers hold the executive power only 
by virtue of their membership in the Privy 
Council, and the Cabinet is not a body recognised 
by law, its existence depending solely upon the 
law of custom. The president of the Privy 
Council is the nominal chief of the Department of 
Education, and a judicial committee of the Privy 
Council, under the presidency of the lord chan- 
cellor, constitutes a court of appeals as well as a 
court of highest instance for India, the colonies, 
the islands of the Channel, and the island of Man. 

562. The House of Commons. — While nominally 
it is only equal to the House of Lords, the House 



670 MODERN HISTORY 

of Commons, in actual power and authority, oc- 
cupies a higher position, and its power is steadily 
increasing. 

The House of Commons, as instituted at present, 
is a representative body elected by universal 
suffrage. The admission of the Commons into 
Parliament in 1265 had provided for the repre- 
sentation of those cities and boroughs only 
whose wealth and population entitled them to 
the privilege. In the course of time some of 
these cities became depopulated and decayed; 
still the decayed boroughs, called the "rotten 
boroughs," retained their privilege of representa- 
tion in Parliament, while many large industrial 
cities were unable to gain for themselves an equal 
privilege. The custom of the sovereign, to grant 
the privilege of representation to unimportant 
places, for the purpose of securing their influence 
in the Commons, also greatly added to making the 
system virtually a farce, as the elections could 
easily be controlled by corrupt means. The 
agitation for a reform of the system was the cause 
of long contest between the Liberals and the Con- 
servatives, but finally the pressure brought to 
bear upon them caused the Conservatives to yield, 
and the Reform Bill of 1832 was the result, pro- 
viding for a wholesale redistribution of seats, 
the disfranchisement of fifty-six of the "rotten 
boroughs," and a complete reformation of the 
franchise, the number of electors being greatly 
increased. 



THE ERA OF THE POLITICAL REVOLUTION 67 1 

In 1867 another reform bill was enacted, in- 
creasing the number of Scotch members, and 
readjusting the representation, the right of fran- 
chise being given to all householders and lodgers 
in the boroughs who paid ten pounds per annum 
in rent, and in the counties, besides the forty- 
shilling freeholders, to all occupiers of lands or 
houses paying a yearly rental of not less than 
twelve pounds. 

In 1884 Gladstone extended the right of fran- 
chise even further, the qualifications for the 
voters in the counties being made the same as in 
the boroughs, so that practically the right of 
franchise is enjoyed by the majority of the male 
population, with the exception of the agricultural 
labourers. 

The redistribution of 1885 fixed the number of 
seats in the House of Commons at 670, the 
reforms of 1832 and 1867 having left them at 658. 

The members of the House of Commons are 
elected by secret ballot and their term of office is 
seven years, although the average duration of a 
Parliament is less than four years. Any citizen 
in possession of full rights of citizenship is eligible, 
excepting the priests of the Church of England, 
ministers of the Church of Scotland, priests of the 
Roman Catholic Church, sheriffs, and English and 
Scotch peers. Irish peers not elected to the House 
of Lords are eligible, however. 

The business of the House of Commons is 
largely under the direction of the Cabinet, which 



672 MODERN HISTORY 

initiates all important legislation. Certain days 
in the week are set apart for the consideration of 
measures introduced by private members. The 
Speaker is elected by the House itself, while the 
clerk and sergeant-at-arms are appointed by the 
crown. 

563. The House of Lords. — The House of Lords 
consists of a varying number of members in so far 
as the representation of England is concerned, 
there being no limitation to the number of 
hereditary peers of England, but with respect to 
Scotland and Ireland the number is fixed. 

The House of Lords in 1896 was constituted by 
one hundred and ninety-six English peers — dukes, 
marquises, earls, viscounts, and barons, — sixteen 
Scottish peers, elected by the body of Scottish 
peers for the term of the Parliament, twenty-eight 
Irish peers, elected by the Irish peerage for life, 
two archbishops, and twenty-two bishops. 

The authority of the House of Lords as regards 
legislation is not very clearly defined, and while it 
is theoretically fully the equal of the House of 
Commons, it is in fact much inferior. All legisla- 
tion must have the approval of the House of 
Lords as well as of the House of Commons, but the 
Upper House scarcely ever refuses to consent to 
measures adopted by the House of Commons, and 
in truth its authority is that of a revising faculty 
over bills passed by the Commons. 

The House of Lords also constitutes the su- 
preme court of appeals, but it hardly ever acts 



THE ERA OF THE POLITICAL REVOLUTION 673 

as such a body, and the functions of this court are 
exercised by four lords of appeal, members of 
the House of Lords by virtue of their office, and 
the lord chancellor. 

564. The Organisation and Jurisdiction of the Law 
Courts, Since 1879. — The law courts of England 
have been the expounders and makers of that 
great system the "Common Law," while the 
local government has secured the greatest measure 
of personal and civil liberty to the subjects. 

Under the name of Court of Judicature are 
understood the general courts of England. The 
Court of Judicature consists of two separate 
courts, namely, the High Court of Justice and the 
Court of Appeals, and for sake of convenience the 
High Court of Justice is arranged into these divi- 
sions: the Chancery Division, the King's Bench 
Division, and the Divorce, Probate, and Ad- 
miralty Division. The judges of these divisions 
do not often sit together as one body, cases being 
tried, as a rule, before one judge only, although 
the three divisions comprise twenty-one judges, 
but in cases of appeals from courts of lower in- 
stance two or more judges must sit together. 
The decisions of the High Court of Justice are 
subject to appeal to the Court of Appeals, and the 
House of Lords stands over them as a court of 
last resort. 

The Court of Appeals consists of the mas- 
ter of the rolls and five lords justices, and to 
this permanent court are sometimes added the 
43 



674 MODERN HISTORY 

presidents of the three divisions of the High Court 
of Justice. The Court of Appeals holds its ses- 
sions in two separate bodies, each consisting of 
three judges, and its jurisdiction extends over all 
appealed cases involving questions of law or of 
fact. Whenever the House of Lords acts as a 
supreme court of appeals, its members do not 
assemble in a body, and the functions of the court 
are discharged by the lord chancellor, the four 
lords of appeal in ordinary, two of whom must 
be present, and to these are sometimes added an 
ex-lord chancellor, or one or more lords justices. 

In each county there is at least one assize 
town, in which members of the High Court of 
Justice hear civil cases and also criminal cases. 
Civil cases may also be tried before County Courts, 
consisting of single judges, appointed to hold 
office during good behaviour. The latter are 
county courts in name only, however, the districts 
being much smaller than counties, but the judges 
are appointed for circuits, of which there are 
fifty-six, comprising about five hundred districts. 
The jurisdiction of the County Courts includes 
cases of debt where not more than fifty pounds, 
and equity cases where not more than two 
hundred pounds, are involved. An appeal may 
be made to the High Court of Justice even if the 
pecuniary amount be very small, if the County 
Court certifies that- important principles of law 
may arise, or upon direction from the High Court 
of Justice, but most cases involving less than 



THE ERA OF THE POLITICAL REVOLUTION 675 

twenty pounds cannot be appealed. On the other 
hand the High Court of Justice may turn over to 
the County Courts for decision cases involving 
less than one hundred pounds. The adjudica- 
tion of criminal cases falls within the province of 
the justices of the peace, the borough justices, 
or judges of the High Court of Justice, the latter 
sitting four times a year as criminal assizes. All 
criminal cases are tried by juries, but in civil 
cases the jury system is seldom employed ; how- 
ever, if both parties so desire, a jury may be 
called. 

565. The County. — Many of the counties of Eng- 
land represent in their areas the erstwhile sepa- 
rate Saxon kingdoms, and they still constitute 
an important centre of rural government. The 
process by which the present form of county gov- 
ernment was attained may be described as a 
transition from the ancient institutions, in which it 
had its general council, presided over by the bish- 
op and ealdorman, a faint trace of these institu- 
tions being preserved to the present day, through a 
period of rise of the sheriff's power, and then, by 
the abrogation of the abuses practised by the 
latter, the abolishing of their judicial powers, as 
well as the ultimate replacing of the old-time 
sheriffs by crown officials, to the reconstructed 
form, which was completed by the appointment 
of the justices of the peace, the latter in time 
acquiring the most important judicial and ad- 
ministrative powers in the local government. 



676 MODERN HISTORY 

The reform of 1888, an attempt to systematise 
the complex and inconsistent divisions of geo- 
graphical and administrative areas, and to remedy 
the confusion resulting therefrom, made the 
counties the principal organs of local government, 
and the act of 1894 placed the counties upon the 
plane of the so-called county-boroughs, con- 
stituted by boroughs having not less than fifty 
thousand inhabitants, giving to the counties an 
organisation resembling that of the boroughs. 

566. The Sheriff. — The sheriff's authority experi- 
enced a great growth during Norman times, the 
County Court becoming practically the sheriff's 
court, and the sheriffs also absorbed the financial 
functions. As in most cases the sheriffs were 
great barons, and often also were officials of the 
exchequer, as such auditing their own accounts, 
instances of abuse of their official positions were 
not of rare occurrence. This abuse of their 
power by the sheriffs was the cause of many 
changes, which aided in the process of giving to 
the county governments their present form. The 
general displacement of the sheriff's authority was 
begun by the sending of royal justices on circuits, 
accountable for their official actions. The elec- 
tion in the counties of the " custodian of pleas of 
the crown" resulted in a further reduction of the 
prerogatives of the sheriffs. Their tenure of 
office was then cut down to one year, and their 
participation in judicial affairs was entirely 
terminated. The appointment of the justices of 



THE ERA OF THE POLITICAL REVOLUTION 677 

the peace culminated the process of transforma- 
tion by which the sheriff became an administrative 
officer only, whose duty consists in the execution 
of the decisions of the courts, and superintendence 
of the elections for Parliament. 

567. The Lord Lieutenant.- — The lord lieutenant 
was the chief representative of the crown in the 
county as the keeper of the official records of the 
county. He was the successor of the sheriff as 
head of the militia of the county until 1870, 
when the command was transferred to the central 
administration. 

568. The Justices of the Peace. — A part of the 
sheriff's prerogatives was abolished by the election 
of the " custodian of the pleas of the crown," in the 
counties, as stated before, but they proved unsatis- 
factory, and the Magna Charta abolished their ju- 
dicial powers. Their successors were the justices 
of the peace, first as preservers of the peace only, 
the judicial powers being vested in them later, 
when they took away from the sheriffs the last part 
of their judicial functions, namely the hearing of 
petty police cases. The powers of the justices 
of the peace were steadily added to, and in the 
course of time they absorbed most of the judicial as 
well as administrative functions in the local govern- 
ment, which were not especially exercised by the 
central government in London. The Reform Act 
of 1888 took away from them the administra- 
tive functions, vesting them in the newly consti- 
tuted council, and they were thus again limited 



678 MODERN HISTORY 

to their purely judicial authority, retaining, to 
some extent, the semi-judicial licensing function. 
The great confusion resulting from the incon- 
sistent division of the country into geographical 
and administrative areas without regard to each 
other, the smaller areas not being in all cases sub- 
divisions of the larger, and the boundary line of a 
geographical division often crossing that of an 
administrative area, was one of the causes whicli 
brought about the reforms of 1888, which aimed 
at the simplification and gradation of the terri- 
torial divisions. The same complexity character- 
ised the election of local officials, as well as the 
method and time of their election, and also the 
clumsy arrangement of collecting the taxes for 
various specific purposes separately, which was 
a most inconvenient feature for the taxpayers. 
When Lord Salisbury conceived the plan for a 
reconstruction and the remedy of the many 
existing evils, he proposed the centring of the 
administration in the counties and districts, which 
were to be made the principal agents of local 
government, and both the county and the district 
were to have representative councils, elected by a 
franchise based upon the parliamentary elections. 
Parliament, however, refused to approve of the 
portion of this reform referring to the districts, 
and only the part reconstructing the county was 
passed, by which the government of the county 
was reorganised. The smaller areas were made 
a part of the county in 1894. 



THE ERA OF THE POLITICAL REVOLUTION 679 

569. The County Council. — The County Council, 
which constitutes the representative governing 
assembly, is composed of councillors and alder- 
men. Differing from the American system, there 
are no two separate bodies, of aldermen and of 
councillors, as they constitute one body, the two 
differing from each other only as regards tenure 
of office, method of election, and number. 

The councillors are elected directly by the 
voters for a term of three years. The aldermen 
number one third of the councillors, and are 
elected either by the councillors themselves or by 
the voters, their term of office being six years. 
One half of the aldermen is renewed every three 
years. The Council is presided pver by a chair- 
man, who has taken over the administrative and 
financial functions of the justices of the peace. 
The qualifications necessary for election as coun- 
cillor are the possession of full electoral privileges 
to vote in the elections for Parliament, and in the 
counties peers having property in the county and 
members of the clergy are also eligible. Actual 
residents, either within the county or within 
seven miles of it, who pay rent in the county, 
occupy a house or shop in the same, are entitled 
to vote as electors of the county councillors, the 
county being divided in as many electoral dis- 
tricts as there are councillors. 

570. The Functions of the County Council. — The 
following are among the principal functions of 
the County Council: The administration of the 



6SO MODERN HISTORY 

property of the county; the purchasing of land 
or buildings for the use of the county; the main- 
tenance of such roads as are not managed by urban • 
authorities, and of pauper and lunatic asylums; 
the management of reformatory and industrial 
schools; the payments of salaries paid out of 
taxes collected by the county, excepting the 
clerks of the justices of the peace; the division 
of the coroners' districts and the apportionment of 
the coroners' fees ; the administration of the laws 
bearing upon contagious diseases of animals; 
fish preservation, weights, measures, etc. ; the 
division of the county into polling districts, 
the selection of the polling places, as well as the 
supervision of registration of the voters; the 
licensing of theatres, music halls, etc. 

A committee of the County Council, acting 
jointly with a committee of the Quarter Sessions, 
exercises the police powers formerly vested in the 
justices of the peace, and the County Council also 
has supervision over the system of parish govern- 
ment, and decides whether the smaller parishes 
shall have parish councils or not. Besides these 
manifold functions the County Council determines 
the county taxes and their assessment, audits the 
accounts of the county treasurer, and it can 
borrow money for the construction of public 
works, the purchase of property for county uses, or 
the consolidation of the debt of the county ; and it 
may also issue stock, but this only after having ob- 
tained the consent of the Local Government Board. 



THE ERA OF THE POLITICAL REVOLUTION 68 1 

571. The County Budget. — The local financial 
year in the county begins on April ist, and on this 
date the estimate for the coming year is sub- 
mitted to the County Council, the estimate being 
for two periods of six months each. If the result 
of the first six months show the necessity for such 
action, the estimate for the second six months is 
either increased or decreased, as the case may be. 
The accounts of the county are audited by the 
district auditors, who are appointed by the Local 
Government Board, and annual financial returns 
are made to this board, an annual report being 
also submitted to both houses of Parliament. In 
order to reduce the tax rate, it was customary 
before the enactment of the reforms of 1888 for 
the government to make annual appropriations of 
money to pay some part of the local expense of ad- 
ministration . The Reform Act of 1888 provides 
for the apportionment among the counties, under 
the direction of the Local Government Board, 
of moneys collected from certain licenses and of a 
part of the proceeds from probate duty, in order 
to aid in paying for the maintenance of pauper 
lunatic asylums and the education of paupers. 

572. The Parish. — The parish formerly was a 
unit in the organisation of the Church. As 
citizenship in those times was almost inseparable 
from church membership, the members of the 
village meeting also exercised the duties of electing 
church- wardens, acting as the vestry, or assem- 
bly of church members. During feudal times, all 



682 MODERN HISTORY 

the township privileges were absorbed by the 
feudal lords, and the vestry remained the only 
part "left standing of the old-time organisation. 
The reconstruction of local government began by 
the reform of 1888, and it was carried further by 
the laws passed in 1894, by which the parish was 
again made an important unit in the local self- 
government, it being strictly separated from all 
connexion with ecclesiastical affairs, which were 
left to the vestries. 

The smaller parishes, having less than three 
hundred inhabitants, are administered by the 
parish meeting, unless the County Council has 
given to the parish a council, in which case the 
latter becomes the executive agent in the parish. 
Every person of legal age, possessing the necessary 
qualifications as elector for the County Council, is 
a member of the parish meeting, and married 
as well as single women are included. Larger 
parishes have parish councils, having from five 
to fifteen members, the parish meeting exercising 
no function beyond the election of the councillors, 
and the voting upon the adoptive acts and upon 
larger loans. The term of office of the parish 
councillors is one year, and women are also eligible. 
The chairman of the parish council is by virtue of 
his office a justice of the peace for the county. 

Among the functions of the parish authorities, 
the parish meeting, or the parish council, are 
the management and acquisition of parish prop- 
erty, erection of buildings for the use of the parish, 



THE ERA OF THE POLITICAL REVOLUTION 683 

maintenance of the roads and burying grounds, 
fixing of the local assessments and tax rate, the 
appointment of the overseers of the poor, and the 
preparation of the parish register. 

573. The Borough. — The boroughs are corporate 
towns possessing a regularly organised municipal 
government and enjoying special privileges con- 
ferred by royal charter. They are governed by 
mayors, aldermen, and councillors, the latter being 
elected by the taxpayers of the borough, holding 
office for three years. The aldermen serve for a 
term of six years, are elected by the councillors, 
and their number is one third of that of the coun- 
cillors. One third of the councillors is renewed 
every year, and one half of the aldermen every 
three years. The aldermen and councillors con- 
stitute one single body, and they elect the mayor, 
whose office is a salaried one. The mayor serves 
for a term of one year. 

The mayor, acting with the- aldermen and 
councillors as one single body, constitute the 
council of the borough. If this council deems 
it desirable that the borough be put in equal rank 
with the county, it applies to the Local Govern- 
ment Board, and the latter holds a local inquiry, 
upon which the decision is based. If the board 
decides that the borough is to be made a county 
borough, it can so order, but Parliament must 
confirm this order before it becomes permanent. 

The county boroughs are entirely separated 
from the counties in which they lie, in so far as 



684 MODERN HISTORY 

local government is concerned. The boroughs 
outside of the county boroughs can be put into 
three classes, so far as their relation to the 
counties in which they are situated is concerned. 
Into the first class fall all boroughs having a 
population of more than ten thousand inhabit- 
ants and having their own quarter sessions, or 
quarterly meetings of the justices. These retain 
an organisation nearly as independent as that of 
the county boroughs themselves, and they form a 
part of the county only for a few purposes of self- 
government. Into the second class may be placed 
boroughs having less than ten thousand inhabit- 
ants but having their own quarter sessions. 
Many of the prerogatives of the borough council 
were transferred by the act of 1888 to the County 
Council, especially the maintenance of pauper 
insane asylums, the management of reformatories, 
highways, coroners, etc. The smaller boroughs, 
having less than ten thousand inhabitants, and no 
separate quarter sessions, comprise the third class, 
and they are practically in almost all matters part 
of the counties in which they are situated. 

574. The Government of London. — By the act of 
1 888 London was made a county under the name 
of "Administrative County of London," having 
its own county organisation, including the lord 
lieutenant, sheriff, council, and the justices of 
the peace. It is not a county borough, as to 
the vestries of the many parishes constituting 
the metropolis by the act of 1894 were given the 






THE ERA OF THE POLITICAL REVOLUTION 685 

powers of regular urban district councils, or the 
councils of urban parishes grouped into districts, 
while the "City" itself in fact merely constitutes 
a quarter session borough within this metropolitan 
county. 

575. England's Colonial Policy. — After the open- 
ing up of new channels for the activities of Europe 
by the discoveries of the fifteenth century, Eng- 
land at once took a prominent part in the colonis- 
ing movements towards the New World, and 
thereby assumed an important position among 
the powers of Europe. Since then England has 
steadily added to her colonial possessions, and 
English institutions have been carried into the 
remotest countries of the world. 

It was only through experience that England 
came to adopt the right policy in the management 
of her colonies, and through the realisation of 
mistakes made, while it came too late to remedy 
them before violent opposition had been created, 
resulting in the loss of her greatest colonies, she 
was brought to guard the interests of her other 
colonies in a more liberal spirit, singularly unlike 
her first policy, the dominant principle of which 
seemed to have been a sense of complete owner- 
ship, from which were supposed to grow rights of 
absolute dominion and extraction of unlimited 
profits. In this policy England had only followed 
the example set by Rome, but she was more 
fortunate in the end, inasmuch as the loss of her 
American colonies did not result in her own down- 



686 MODERN HISTORY 

fall, for she was not dissuaded from carrying out 
fuVther plans for expansion, and was able to build 
up another colonial empire nearly as great as that 
she had forfeited by her short-sightedness. How- 
ever, this change did not take place immediately 
after the loss of America, and a further lesson was 
needed before England experienced the change 
of heart which ultimately brought about the 
abandonment of the narrow policy heretofore 
pursued in the government of her colonies. This 
lesson was the rebellion in French Canada in 1837. 
While the rebellion was put down, the result of the 
outbreak was far different from what it would 
have been half a century before, and it was 
certainly most satisfactory to Canada, largely 
through the thorough appreciation of the real 
state of affairs and of the remedies needed to 
settle the existing differences by Lord Durham, 
the English commissioner sent to Canada after 
the rebellion, in order to ascertain the grievances 
of the colony and to institute the proper remedies 
and liberal reforms. Lord Durham was recalled 
by England because of his arbitrary conduct, but 
his statement that nothing else but independent 
self-government would have the desired effect 
carried much weight and no doubt aided in giving 
such privileges to Canada in 1847, and later also to 
other British colonies, that they were able to 
administer their own government. 

576. The Colonies. — The English colonies are 
classified as follows: (1) Self-governing colonies, 



THE ERA OF THE POLITICAL REVOLUTION 68? 

namely: Canada, Newfoundland, Cape Colony, 
New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, 
Victoria, West Australia, and Tasmania — the lat- 
ter six colonies constituting the Commonwealth of 
Australia, — and New Zealand; (2) Crown colonies, 
namely: St. Helena, Gibraltar, Trinidad, Straits 
Settlement, Jamaica, the Bahamas, and Bermuda. 
The self-governing colonies enjoy complete legisla- 
tive independence, with the exception of such 
matters as affect the interests of the empire, while 
the crown colonies are governed in a measure 
more or less complete through the Colonial Office 
in London. 

577. Canada. — The government of Canada was 
not put upon a satisfactory basis until 1867, when 
by the British North America Act the Dominion 
of Canada, consisting of Quebec, Ontario, New 
Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Manitoba, British Colum- 
bia, and Prince Edward's Island, received its 
present constitution, each of the provinces named 
being given a separate administration, presided 
over by the lieutenant-governor. Each province 
has a Cabinet of ministers, the ministers being 
chosen from the majority of the lower chamber, 
and they are responsible to Parliament (the pro- 
vinces of Ontario, British Columbia, and Manitoba 
have a Parliament consisting of one house only), as 
the representatives of the people, for their policy 
and executive acts. The government of the 
Dominion of Canada is shaped after the govern- 
ment of England, the self-governing provinces 



688 MODERN HISTORY 

being united under a central government, with its 
own governor-general, Cabinet ministers, Parlia- 
ment, but it remains nevertheless an integral part 
of the British empire. The Cabinet is composed 
of fourteen members, who represent the major- 
ity of the House of Commons, namely the Prime 
Minister, the Secretary of State, the Minister of 
Finance, of Trade and Commerce, Justice, Rail- 
ways and Canals, Militia, Agriculture, Public 
Works, Interior, and the Postmaster-General, 
and besides there are two ministers having no 
special portfolios. 

The Canadian Parliament consists of the Senate 
or upper chamber, having eighty-one life mem- 
bers, appointed by the Governor-General, and the 
House of Commons, with two hundred and 
thirteen members, serving for a term of five 
years. Representation in the House of Commons 
is proportionate to the population, it being stipu- 
lated, however, that Quebec shall never have less 
than sixty-five representatives. 

578. Australia. — On January i, 1 901, the Com- 
monwealth of Australia was proclaimed, consist- 
ing of the six colonies (now denominated Original 
States) of New South Wales, Victoria, Queens- 
land, South Australia, Western Australia, and 
Tasmania, the government being very similar to 
that of Canada. Legislative power is vested in 
a Federal Parliament. This legislative body is 
constituted by the king, represented by the 
governor-general, the Senate, and the House of 



THE ERA OF THE POLITICAL REVOLUTION' 689 

Representatives. The several State Parliaments 
retain authority in all matters that have not been 
specifically transferred to the Federal Parliament. 
The executive power of the king is exercised by 
the governor-general, with the aid of the Ex- 
ecutive Council consisting of seven Ministers of 
State. They are : the Minister of External Affairs 
and Prime Minister, of Trade and Customs , of 
Home Affairs, of Defence, the Attorney-General, 
the Treasurer, Postmaster-general, and the Vice- 
President of the Executive Council. In principle 
the governments of the several colonies are very 
little apart, there being some difference, however, 
in the composition and election of the various 
Parliaments. 

In the colony of Victoria the government rests 
with a Parliament consisting of two houses, the 
Legislative Council, and the Legislative Assembly. 
General elections are held every three years, all 
men of the legal age of twenty-one being entitled 
to vote, and the vote is by ballot. The governor. 
is appointed by the king of England, and is as- 
sisted by an executive council, consisting of the 
ministers and ex-ministers. There are ten min- 
isters, namely, the Treasurer, Chief Secretary, the 
Minister of Public Instruction, of Water Supply, 
Public Works, Agriculture, and Mines, the Solicit- 
or-General and Attorney- General, and two minis- 
ters without portfolio. 

579. India. — India is governed directly from 
London by the India Office, whose head is a 



69O MODERN HIS TOR Y 

minister, the Secretary of State for India, assisted 
by a council of ten or more members appointed by 
the crown from among ex-officials of the Indian 
service, or ex-residents of India, through the gover- 
nor-general, also assisted by a council of five or 
six members likewise appointed by the crown. 
This council acts also as a legislative council, and 
as such is augmented by the addition of from 
ten to sixteen members nominated by the gover- 
nor-general. 

The direct government of the India Office, 
through the governor -general, is not applied 
equally to every part of India, as India is divided 
for ordinary administrative purposes into pro- 
vinces, each with a government of its own, 
enjoying varying degrees of independence in the 
management of local affairs, and some of the 
native states have practically complete autonomy, 
of course under English control. Bengal, the 
North- Western Provinces, and the Punjab are 
administered by single officials, lieutenant-gov- 
ernors, appointed by the governor-general, and 
Bengal also has a legislative council. The gover- 
nors of the presidencies of Madras and Bombay 
are appointed directly from England, and have an 
executive as well as a legislative council. 



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WORKS USED IN COMPILING THE NOTES 

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Century Co., Dictionary, Cyclopedia, and Atlas. 10 vols., 
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Colby, F. M., Outlines of General History. New York, 1900. 

Coulanges, Fustel de, The Ancient City. Boston, 1882. 

Curteis, A. M.,Rise of the Macedonian Empire. London, 
1895. 

Dawson, W. H., Germany and the Germans. 2 vols., 
London, 1894. 

Duruy, Victor, General History of the World. New York, 
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Edwards, A. A. B., Pharaohs, Fellahs, and Explorers. New 
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Encyclopedia Britannica. American Edition, 30 vols., 
Akron, O., 1900. 

Fisher, G. P., Outlines of Universal History. New York, 
1904. 

Freeman, E. A., Comparative Politics. London, 1873. 

Gibbon, E., Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. New 
York, 1892. 

Hallam, H., Constitutional History of England. 2 vols., 
New York, 1880. 

Hallam, H., View of the State of Europe during the Middle 
Ages. New York, 1900. 

Keary, C F., The Dawn of History. New York, 1904. 

Lubbock, Sir John, The Origin of Civilisation and the 
Primitive Condition of Man. London, 1889. 

McLennan, J. F.. The Patriarchal Theory. London, 1885. 
691 



692 BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Myers, P. V. N., Eastern Nations and Greece. Boston, 
1902. 

Myers, P. V. N., General History. Boston, 1904. 

Myers, P. V. N., History of Rome. Boston, 1904. 

Myers, P. V. N., Rome: Its Rise and Fall. Boston, 1904. 

Oman, C. W. C, A History of Greece from the Earliest Times 
to the Death of Alexander the Great. London, 1895. 

Peck, H. T., Editor, Harper's Dictionary of Classical 
Literature and Antiquities. New York, 1897. 

Ridpath, John Clark, History of the World. New York, 
1901. 

Robinson, J. H., An Introduction to the History of Western 
Europe. 2 vols., Boston, 1904. 

Sayce, A. H., Babylonians and Assyrians. New York, 
1899. 

Schmidt, O., Doctrine of Descent and Darwinism. New 
York, 1890. 

Spencer, H., Sociology. New York, 1890. 

Williams, S. W., Middle Kingdom, 2 vols., New York. 
1899. 

Wilson, W., The State. New York, 1902. 



INDEX. 



Note : Figures at beginning of line denote section numbers. 



Aaron, 74. 

Abassides, 380. 

Abdallah, 371. 

Abdelrahman, 380. 

Abderrahman, 382. 

Aboukir Bay, battle of, 580. 

Abraham, 73. 

Absalom, 76. 

426. Absolute government 
of Louis XIV., 520. 

Abubekr, 372. 

Abyssinia, 64. 

Acarnania, 169. 

3S. Accadians, 61, 64, 98. 

Acerbas, 221. 

Achaia, 146. 

128. Achaian league, 168, et 
pass. 

Achaians, 96, 111, 114. 

Achilles, 100, et pass. 

Acre, siege of, 580. 

Acropolis, 122, ei pass. 

Actium, 269. 

Act of Union (1800), 550. 

Admetus, 100. 

421. Adolphus, Gustavus, 
King of Sweden, 516-517. 

Adonijah, 76. 

35. Adoption, 53. 

Adrianople, 292. 

455. Advance of popular gov- 
ernment (England), 549. 

JEgx, 154. 

vEgates, 228. 

yEgeus, 98, 99. 



^Egina, 201. 
^Egisthus, 10 1. 
^Egospotami, 152. 
^Emilius Paulus, 233, 241. 
^Eneas, 208, 222. 
^Eneid, 208, 339. 
^Eolians, 95, in. 
.<Equians, 217. 
^Eschines, 193, et pass. 
^Eschylus, 144, et pass. 
JEtes, 100. 
^Etius, 295, 363. 
^Etolian league, 159, et pass. 
Africa, 222, 236, et pass. 
491. After events in France, 

592, 594- 

Agade, 66. 

Agamemnon, 100, 185; et 
pass. 

Age of revival, 389-468. 

Agra, 438. 

Agricola, 279. 

Agrippa, 271, et seq. 

Agrippina, 275, 276. 

Ahriman, 89. 

Ajax, 102, et pass. 

Alaric, 363. 

Alba Longa, 205. 

Albigenses, 510. 

119. Alcibiades, 150, et pass. 

Alcmaeonidae, 126, 163. 

Alcmene, 97. 

Aleppo, 377. 

Alexander, 82, 88, et pass. 

114. Alexander and the de- 
cline of Greece, 144. 

Alexander II., czar, 010. 



693 



694 



INDEX 



Alexander II., pope, 432. 
Alexander V., pope, 435. 
Alexander VI., pope, 458, 

468, 478. 
Alexander, Prince of Parma, 

5°7- 
234. Alexander Severus, 286, 

287. 

124. Alexander the Great, 

i55- 

125. Alexander, the suc- 
cessors of, 156. 

Alexandria, 269, 278, 286, 

377- 

Alexandrine war, 262. 
Alexis, son of Peter the 

Great, 561. 
Alfonso II., 458. 
Alfred, King, 387 
Ali, 378- 
Allia, 218. 

Alsace and Lorraine, 617. 
Alva, Duke of, 505. 
Amaury, 456. 
Amazons, 98, 99. 
Ambrosius, 363. 
Amerigo Vespucci, 443, 473. 
Amertris, 87. 
Amina, 371. 

Amphictyonic council, 154. 
Am phi cty oni c leagues , 112. 
Amphipolis, 150, 154. 
Amphitryon, 97. 
Ampsivarii, 360. 
Amrou, 377. 
Amurath I., 438. 
Amyntos II., 154. 
Anabaptists, 480. 
Anabasis, 153, 192, et pass. 
Anaxagoras, 143, et seq. 
81. Ancient city, 108-110. 
1. Ancient history, 1-352. 
Ancus Martius, 210. 
Ancyra, 437. 
Andros, 152. 
Anio, 214. 

Anne of Austria, 521. 
Antioch, 157, 377, 426. 
Antiochis, tribe, 132. 
Antiochus III., 157, 236. 



Antipater, 159, 194. 
Antiphon, 143, 144. 
Antoine, King of Navarre, 

511- 5 12 - 
230. Antonines, 282. 
Antonius, consul, 260. 
Antony, 256, 265, ct pass. 
217. Antony and Cleopatra, 

267. 
Apelles, 143, et pass. 
Aphrodite, 103, et pass. 
Apocrypha, 79. 
Apollo, 103, ct pass. 
Apollonius Molo, 343. 
Appius Claudius, 216, 307. 
Appius Claudius Caucus, 341. 
Apulia, 203, 204, 232. 
Aquae Sextiag, 250. 
279. Aqueducts and baths, 

335- 336- 

Aquinas, Thomas, 445. 

307. Arabia before Moham- 
med, 371. 

Aratus, 168. 

Arbadites, 81. 

Arbela, 88, et pass. 

Arbogastes, 293. 

Arcadian stag, 98. 

Arcadius, 293. 

Archelaus, 190. 

Archias, 342. 

43. Architecture (Chaldaea, 
etc.), 66. 

20. Architecture (Egypt) 

2 3- 

60. Architectures, compari- 
son of ancient, 89. 

Archon Basileus, 176. 

Archon Eponymos, 176. 

136. Archons, 175, ct pass. 

Areopagus, 121, ct pass. 

Ares, 98, 100, 103. 

Argo, 99. 

Argolis, 97. 

69. Argonaut expedition, 99, 
100. 

Argos, 135, 146, 168. 

Ariadne, 99. 

Ariminum, 204. 

Aristarchus, 102. 



INDEX 



695 



106. Aristides, 132, ct pass. 

Aristomenes, 119. 

Aristophanes, 143, ct pass. 

155. Aristotle, 197, ct pass. 

Arkites, 81. 

Armenians, 280, ct pass. 

Arminius, 273. 

23. Army (Egypt), 26. 

Arno, 204, 232, ct pass. 

Arnulf, 463. 

505. Arrondissement, 605- 

606. 
Arses, 88. 
Arsinoe, 158. 
Artaphernes, 128. 
Artaxerxes, 87, 133, ct pass. 
Artaxerxes II., 88. 
Artemis, 103, 118. 
Artemisium, 138, ■ et pass. 
Arthur, Prince of Wales, 489. 
Artois, 483. 

18. Arts, Egyptian, 20-21. 
Ascendency of France, 520- 

525- . 
394. Ascendency of Spain 

under Charles V., 482-486. 
Ascra, 188. 
Aspasia, 199. 
Asshur, 67. 
Asshur-Dayan II., 62. 
Assurbanipal, 72. 
40. Assyrians, 61-63. 
Astarte, 223. 
Astures, 271. 
Astyages, 84. 
Atahualpa, Inca, 476. 
Athamas, 99. 
Athena, 103, 144, ct pass. 
94. Athens, 119, ct pass. 

120. Athens, the fall of, 152. 
135. Athens, 175, ct pass. 
Atlas, 98, 103, in. 
Atreus, 161. 

Attica, 98, et pass. 

116. Attic war, 146, et seq. 

117. Attic war, character of, 

147- 

121. Attic war, results of, 152. 
244. Attila, 295-297, et 

seq. 



Auerstadt, 586. 

Aufidus, 233. 

Augean stables, 98. 

Augsburg, Diet of, 485. 

Augurs, 212. 

282. Augustan age, 338. 

Augustulus, 357. 

Augustus, Caius Julius Cassar 

Octavianus, 270, et seq. 
Aulus, 249. 
Aurelian, 287, et seq. 
Aurelius Antoninus, 280, et 

seq. 
Aurelius Antoninus Pius, 280. 
Auspices, 212. 
Aussig, 466. 

Austerlitz, battle of, ^84, 622. 
578. Australia, 688-689 
Austro-Sardinian war, 593. 
Ayesha, 373. 
Azov, conquest of, 558. 
Aztecs, 475. 



B 



Babel, tower of, 70. 
Bab-ili, 68. 

46. Babylon, city of, 68-70. 

47. Babylon, fall of, 70-71. 
41. Babylonia, 63-64, 78. 
Bacchus, 189. 

Bacon, 501. 

Bacon, Roger, 445. 

Bacon, Sir Nicholas, 496. 

Bactrians, 87. 

Bagdad, 380. 

Bagoas, 88. 

Bajazet I., Sultan, 437, 438. 

Balboa, 474. 

Balearic Islands, 223. 

Baliol, Edward, 451. 

240. Barbarians, 291-292. 

Barbarossa, Algerian pirate 

484. 
Barrack emperors, 284, ct seq. 
Bautzen, battle of, 590. 
Bazaine, Marshal, 616. 
Bedford, Duke of, (Regent), 

452. 



696 



INDEX 



Bedr 373. 

371. Beginning of the States 
General, 456-457. 

Belisarius, 360. 

Bellum Catilinarium, 343. 

Belshazzar, 71. 

Belus, 221. 

325. Benefice and commend- 
ation, 395-396. 

Beneventum, 221. 

400. Benevolences and 

"Morton's Fork," 488- 
489. 

Beni Hassan, 161. 

Benjamin, 76, 77. 

Bennigsen, battle of, 587. 

Berlin, congress of, 611. 

Bernadotte, 653. 

Bernicia, 364. 

Bestia, 249. 

Beziers, 455. 

Bibliography, 691-692. 

Bill of Rights, 548. 

Bismarck, 614, et seq. 

Bithynia, 236. 

Blucher, 586. 

Bobadilla, 473. 

Boccaccio, 443, 447. 

Bocchus, 249. 

Boethius, 358. 

Bceotia, in, 138, 149, 169. 

Boeotian league, 146. 

Boii, 229. 

Boleyn, Anne, 490. 

Bonaparte, Joseph, 588. 

Bonaparte, Louis Napoleon, 

593. 595- 
Bonaparte, Napoleon, 572. 
Borodino, battle of, 589. 
573. Borough (England), 

683. 
Borsippa, 70, 71. 
Bostar, 226. 
Bosworth, 453. 
Bothwell, Earl of, 498. 
Bourbon, Duke of, 483. 
Bourbons, second restoration 

of, 592. 
Brandenburg, 297. 
Brasidas, 149, 150. 



Brazilian empire, 588. 
Brennus, 219. 
Britannicus, 276. 
558. British government of 
the present time, 665-666. 
Bruce, David, 451. 
Bructeri, 360. 
Brundisium, 262. 
Bruttium, 204, 235. 
Brutus, 265, et scq. 
13. Buddhism, 13. 
529. Bundesrath, 626-629. 
Bunyan, John, 542, 543. 
Byrsa, 222, 245. 



Caaba, 371. 

464. Cabinet (England), 556— 

557- 
500. Cabinet and council of 

ministers (France), 601- 

602. 
Cabral, Alvarez, 474. 
Cadmus, 96. 
Caesar, 260, et pass. 
213. Caesar and Pompey, 261. 
Caesarion, 268. 
Cassonia, 275. 
Cairo, 380. 
Caius Caesar, grandson of 

Augustus, 271. 
215. Caius Julius Caesar, 263. 
Caius Julius Cresar Octav- 

ianus, 269-270, 338. 
Calabria, 203, 204. 
Calauria, 159. 
Calicut, 474. 

222. Caligula, 274, et scq. 
Caliph Omar, 377. 
Calixtines, 456. 
Callicrates, 143. 
Callimachus, 129. 
Calvin, John, 481. 
Calypso, 186. 
Cam bray, peace of, 483. 
Cambyses, 85. 
Camillus, 219. 
Campania, 204, 251, 273. 
Campeggio, 491. 



INDEX 



697 



Campus Martius, 213. 

Canaanites, 81. 

577. Canada, 687-688. 

185. Cannre, defeat of, 232, 

234, et pass. 
Canossa, 433. 
Cantabri, 271. 
506. Canton, 606. 
543. Cantonal executive, 

642-643. 
542. Cantonal legislatures, 

642. 
Canusium, 233. 
Canute, 388. 
Capet, Hugh, Duke of France, 

525- 
Cappel, 481. 
Caprese, 273, 274. 
Capua, 233, 255. 
233. Caracalla, Macrinus, 

Elagabalus, 285-2S6. 
Caracola (Hayti), 472. 
Carbonari uprising, 659. 
Cardinal Colonna (Martin V.), 

pope, 436. 
173. Carthage, 221, et pass. 
Carus, 287. 
Cassander, 157. 
Cassiodorus, 358. 
Cassius, 266, 267. 
Catabasis, 153. 
Catherine II., 565. 
Catherine de' Medici, 510, 

468. Catherine the Great, 
561-562. 

Catiline, 259, ci pass. 

2 ix. Catiline's conspiracy, 
258. 

Cato, the censor, 341. 

Cato, Marcus Porcius, 242. 

Catulus, 228, 229, 251. 

472. Causes of French revo- 
lution, 566-568. 

390. Causes of the Reforma- 
tion, 478-479. 

Cavour, Count, 661. 

Cecil, Robert and William, 
496. 

Cecropia, 120. 



Cecrops, 96. 

Cedric, 364. 

Celts, 159. 

Centaurs, 99. 

438. Centralised adminis- 
tration (France), 532. 

Cerberus, 98. 

Cercina, 252. 

Crueronea, 154. 

Chalcidice, 154. 

37. Chaldaea, Assyria, and 
Babylonia, 59, et scq. 

Chalons, 295, 296. 

Chamavi, 360. 

496. Chamber of deputies 
(France), 597-598. 

478. Changes in the laws 
(France), 573-574. 

495. Character .of the consti- 
tution (France), 596-597. 

541. Character of the Swiss 
state, 641—642. 

323. Characteristic features 
of the Feudal System, 393- 

394- 
Chares, 164. 
315 Charlemagne, 362, 383- 

3§5- 
444 Charles I, 53 6 -53 8 - 
450. Charles II., 543-545- 
Charles V., 457, 479, 482, 

5 02 . 5°3- 
Charles VI., 457. 
Charles VI., emperor, 564. 
Charles VII., 457. 
Charles VIII., 457. 
Charles IX., 511. 
Charles X., 512, 592, 595, 613. 
Charles XII., of Sweden, 560. 
Charles, Archduke of Austria, 

549- 
Charles, Cardinal of Lorraine, 

5"- 

Charles Martel, 380, 3S2. 
314. Charles Martel and 
Pepin "Le Bref , " 382-383. 
Charles of Anjou, 464. 
Charles the Fat, 463. 
Charles the Great, 440. 
Charles the Simple, 3S8. 



698 



INDEX 



Charmides, 144. 
Charybdis, 186. 
368. Chaucer and Wycliffe, 

453-454- 
Chaucer, Geoffrey, 453. 
Chersonese, 131, 132. 
Chief amusements (Greece), 

200. 
350. Children's and minor 

crusades, 430-431. 

4. China, 6, et seq. 

10. China, a stagnant nation, 
11. 

5. China, early history of, 

7- 
9. China, government of, 9. 

11. China, religion, 12. 
Chioggia, 442. 

Chios, 145. • 

340. Chivalry, 415-418. 

Chlorus, 288. 

Chosroes II., King of Persia, 

37°- 

Chouans and Vendeans re- 
volt, 576. 

Christ, 78. 

Christian IV., 517. 

Christian, Prince of Anhalt, 
516. 

Christopher Columbus,' 432, 

471-473. 
48. Chronology (Chaldaea, 

etc.), 71. 
Chrysomallus, 99. 
337. Church in the middle 

ages, 409-411. 
Cicero, 256, 259, et pass. 
Cilicia, 257. 
Cimbri, 250, 251. 
Cimon, 131, 142, et pass. 
169. Cincinnatus, 217. 
Cinna, 252. 
Circe, 186. 
Circeii, 252. 

278. Circuses (Rome), 335. 
329. City leagues, 401-403. 
65. City, the political unit 

(Greece), 96. 
446. Civil war (England, 

1642), 538-539- 



76. Classes (Greece), 105. 

162. Classes of society 
(Rome), 207. 

Claudius, 227, 287. 

223. Claudius, emperor, 276, 
et seq. 

Clement III., pope, 433. 

Clement VII., pope, 488. 

Cleon, 147, ct seq. 

Cleopatra, 158, 262, et pass. 

Clermont, council of, 424. 

Cleves, Anne of, 491. 

99. Clisthenes, 125, et pass. 

Clive, Lord, 525, 550. 

Clotilda, 366. 

Clovis, 360. 

Clusium, 217, 228. 

Clytemnestra, 10 1. 

Codes (Roman), 332. 

Codex, 347. 

Codomannos, 88. 

Codrus, 120, ct pass. 

Ccele-Syria, 258. 

Colbert, 522. 

Colchis, 99. 

College of Augurs and Pon- 
tiffs, 217. 

86. Colonial institutions 
(Greek), 112. 

576. Colonies f English), 686- 
687. 

84. Colonies (Greek), in. 

Colonus, 190. 

Colosseum, 335. 

Colossus, 165. 

Columbus, Christopher, 432, 

47.!t473- 

Comitia Centuriata, 301, ct 
pass. 

Comitia Curiata, 207, 301, 
et pass. 

Commentarii, 343. 

Commodus, 284. 

553. Common government 
before separation (Sweden 
and Norway), 657-658. 

447. Commonwealth (Eng- 
land), 540-541. 

507. Commune, 606. 

Compactata, 466. 



INDEX 



699 



322. Comparison of the gov- 
ernmental systems of the 
Teutons and of Rome, 391— 

393- 
Conception, island, 472. 
272. Conception of the law 

of nature, 329. 
335. Conditions in Germany, 

407-408. 
Confederation of the Rhine, 

585, 622. 
302. Conflict between the 

Roman and the Celtic 

churches, 367. 
14. Confucius, 14. 
Congress of Corinth, 134. 
Conrad of Franconia, 463. 
Conrad II., 427. 
Conrad III., 428, 464. 
Conradin, last of the Hohen- 

staufens, 464. 
Constance, council of, 435- 

465- 
Constans I., 290. 
Constantine II., 290. 
Constantine XL, emperor, 

439- 
238. Constantius the Great, 

199, 289. 
Constantius II., 290. 
264. Constitutional changes 

(Rome), 320. 
488. Continental system, 

587-588. 
Conventicle act, 544. 
301. Conversion of the first 

tribes, 365-367. 
Copernicus, 195. 
Corcyrea, 135, 145, 146. 
Corday, Charlotte, 573. 
Cordova, 379, 380. 
167. Coriolanus, 215. 
Corinth, 145, et pass. 
Corinthian architecture, 161. 
Cornelia, 247. 
Cornutus, 340. 
Coronea, 153, 192, et pass. 
Corpinum, 251. 
Corpus Juris Civilis, 329, 347, 

3 6 9. 583- 



Corrupt dramatists (Eng- 
land), 547. 

Corsica, 223, 228. 

Cortes, 462, 475. 

80. Council of Elders, 107, 
172. 

439. Councils of State and 
Royal council, 532-533. 

61. Country (Greece), 92. 

565. County (England), 675, 
676. 

571. County budget, 681. 

569. County council, 679. 

536. County law, 635. 

Cranmer, Archbishop of Can- 
terbury, 492. 

Crassus, 254, 255, 341, et pass. 

Cremona, 229. 

Crespy, peace of, 484. 

Creta, bull of, 98. 

Crete, 92, in, 115, 135, et 
pass. 

Crimea, 114. 

512. Crimean war, 610, 665. 

Croesus, 64, 70, 84, 104, et 
• pass. 

Cromwell, Thomas, 491. 

Cronos, 103. 

Crotona, 113, 195. 

370. Crusade against the 
Albigenses, 455-456. 

Crusades, 421, 437. 

Ctesiphon, 280, 377. 

Cuba, 472. 

45. Culture (Chaldasa, etc.), 
67. 

Cumse, 234. 

Cunaxa, 88, 153, et pass. 

Curatii, 209. 

Curius, 259. 

33. Custom, 48. 

Customs Union (Germany), 
614, 6.28. 

Cyaxares, 62, 84 104. 

Cyclops, 160. 

95. Cylon, 122. 

191. Cynoscephalae, battle of, 
168, 238, et pass. 

Cynric, 364. 

Cyprus, 222. 



700 



INDEX 



Cyrene, 114. 
Cyropaedia, 192. 
Cyrus, 64, 70, 78, 
et pass. 

D 



153. 



Dacia, 359. 

Damascus, 376. 

Danaus, 96. 

Danelagh, 387. 

Dante Allighieri, 443, 448. 

Danton, 573. 

Darius, 85, 127, 131, 134, 

136, et pass. 
Darius II., 87, 88. 
Darius III., 155. 
Dark ages, 3S7-3 88 - 
Darnley, Lord, 498. 
Datis, 86, 128. 
Dauphin, 571. 
David, 76, 77. 
408. Davis, Frobisher, and 

Drake, 499-500. 
218. Death of Antony and 

Cleopatra, 269. 
Decebalus, 280. 
253. Decemvirs, 307. 
Decimus Brutus, 349. 
Declaration of Independence, 

55°- 
Declaration of Indulgence 

(England), 545. 
397. Decline of the power of 

Spain, 487. 
194. Defeat of Perseus, 241. 
Deira, 364. 
Delhi, 664. 
Delian confederacy, 113, 133, 

et pass. 
Delium, 149. 
in. Delos, the confederacy 

of, 141, ct seq. 
Delphi, 104, ct pass. 
Delphian Apollo, 135. 
De Marchena, 472. 
Demarchs, 182. 
Demes, 181. 
Demeter, 103. 
Democracy, 112. 



Democritus, 143. 

Demosthenes, general, 149, 
ct pass. 

Demosthenes, orator, 154. 

Desiderius, 362, 384. 

195. Destruction of Corinth, 
241. 

Deutsch-Brod, 466. 

458. Development of British 
political institutions, 551. 

463. Development of Par- 
liament, 555-556. 

403. Developments in church 
government, 492-493. 

Diana, 162, et pass. 

Diaz, Bartholomew, 473. 

Dicasteries, 143. 

Dido, 221. 

237. Diocletianus Valerius, 
288-289. 

Diogenes, 200. 

Diomedes, 100. 

Diomedes, mares of, 98. 

Dione, 103. 

Dionysos, 144, ct pass. 

482. Directory (France), 
577-578. 

134. Discipline (Sparta), 174. 

384. Discoveries, 471. 

268. Discussion an instru- 
ment of progress, 324. 

378. Dismemberment instead 
of centralisation (Ger- 
many), 462-464. 

311. Dissensions and final 
dismemberment of the 
Caliphate, 378-3S0. 

441. "Divine Right" and 
"Royal Touch" in Eng- 
land, 533-534- 

52. Division of the kingdom 
(Hebrews), 77. 

3. Divisions of ancient his- 

tor y- .5; 

2. Divisions of general his- 
tory, 5. 

292. Divisions of history 
since the fall of Rome, 355. 

159. Divisions of Italy, 203. 

Dodona, 104. 



INDEX 



70I 



Domitia, 280, 340. 

228. Domitian, last of the 

twelve Cnesars, 27Q. 
Don Juan d' Austria, . i so, 

507." 
Dorians, q5, hi, 120. 
Doric architecture, 161, et 

pass. 
Doriscus, 137. 
Dorylaeum, 426. 
Dover, secret treaty of, 545. 
96. Draco, 123, ct pass. 
137. Draco's constitutional 

changes a failure, 176. 
Drake, Sir Francis, 500. 
Drepanum, 227. 
Drusus, 271 274, 276. 
Duillius, 225. 
Durham, Lord, 686. 



E 



Earl Harold, 419. 

460. Early English Institu- 
tions, 552-554. 

381. Early German liter- 
ature, 466-467. 

248. Early Greek and Roman 
constitutions compared, 
299. 

5 5 . Early histor3 r (Persians) , 

64. 

160. Early inhabitants 
(Italy), 204. 

319. Early institutions 
(Germany), 389-390. 

519. Early institutions and 
conditions in Germany, 
617-618. 

Early political institutions of 
England, 551-557. 

79. Early political organisa- 
tions (Greece), 107. 

269. Early Roman law, 325. 

165. Early Roman republic, 

213- 

161. Early Rome, 206. 

465. Early Russian history, 

557-558' 
Ecclesia, 123, 179. 



288. Education, 347-348. 
Edward, King, 418. 
Edward III, 451. 
Edward IV., 451. 
Edward V., of England, 453. 
404. Edward VI. and Mary, 

493-495- 

321. Effect of the contact 
with Rome, 390-391. 

440. Effect of the French 
revolution (upon govern- 
ment), 533. 

492. Effect of the French 
revolution upon admin- 
istrative system, 594. 

^^^. Effect on theinstitutions 
and laws of the continent, 
405-406. 

127. Effects of Alexander's 
conquests, 167. 

351, 436. Effects of the 
crusades, 431—432, 530— 

53 1 - 

255. Effects of external wars 
and internal struggles 
upon the condition of the 
classes and the growth of 
the constitution (Rome), 
308. 

327. Effects of the feudal 
system, 397-401. 

312. Effects of Mohammed- 
anism, 380—381. 

342. Effects of the Norman 
conquest, 421. 

4S1. Effects of the revolution 
outside of Paris, 576-577. 

425. Effects of the thirty 
years' war upon Germany, 

5*9- 
Egbert, 365. 
15. Egypt, 16, et seq. 

Egypt, chronology, 18. 

Egypt, classes, 25. 

Egypt, climate, 17. 

Egypt, country, 16. 
26 Egypt, organisation and 

government, 29. 
2i. Egypt, religion, 24. 
Eidsvold, 652. 



17 



702 



INDEX 



39. Elamites, 61. 

Eleans, 106. 

Eleusis, 189. 

Elijah, 77. 

Elis, 144. 

Elisha, 77. 

Elissa, 221. 

405. Elizabeth, 495-497, 508. 

Elizabeth, of England, 494. 

528. Emperor (Germany), 
625-626. 

339. Emperor and the Pope, 
412-415. 

532. Empire and its com- 
ponent parts (Germany), 
631-632. 

261. Empire in the form of a 
republic (Rome), 317. 

178. End of the first Punic 
war, 227. 

58. End of the Persian em- 
pire, 88. 

England, 120, 450-454, 533- 
55 I , 663-690. 

557. England in the 19th 
century, 663-665. 

575. England's colonial pol- 
icy, 685-686. 

399. England's preparation 
for the Reformation, 488. 

576. English colonies, 686. 
369. English possessions in 

France, 454-455. 

Ephesus, 162. 

Ephialtes, 143. 

132. Ephors, 116, 172, et pass. 

Epictetus, 344. 

154. Epicureans and Stoics, 
196. 

Epidaurus, 168. 

Epirus, 267. 

Era of the political revolu- 
tion, 520—690. 

Era of the Reformation, 477— 

Erech, 65. 

Eretrians, 127. 

Eriksson , Gustav , ( Vasa) ,651. 

Eros, 165. 

Erymanthia, boar of, 98. 



Erythesia, 98. 
Erythrean sea, 280. 
Esarhaddon, 72. 
Ethelbert of Kent, 367. 
Ethnological history, 3. 
Etruria, 204, 229, et pass. 
Etruscans, 205, 220, et pass. 
Eubcea, 127, 140, 179. 
Eudosia, 297. 
Eugenius, 293. 
Eumenes, 241. 
Eupatrides, 178. 
Euphorion, 189. 
Euphrates, 73, 85. 
344. Europe in the year 1000, 

422-423. 
Euripides, 143, et pass. 
Eurymedon, 142. 
Eurystheus, 97. 
216. Events subsequent upon 

Caesar's death, 266. 
28. Evolution, theory of, 32. 
560. Evolution of five offices 

of state (England), 668- 

669. 
36. Evolution of the state, 

55- 
102. Expedition of Darius 

against Greece, 127. 
524. Extinction of the Holy 

Roman Empire, 622. 



184. Fabius Cunctator, 232. 
197. Fail of Carthage, 244. 
479. Fall of Hebert and 

Danton, 574. 
236. Fall of Palmyra, 287. 
30. Family, 39. 
32. Family development and 

organisation, 46. 
Fatimedes, 380. 
Faust, 449. 
Faustulus, 208. 
Fawkes, Guy, 534. 
548. Federal assembly 

(Switzerland), 648. 
545. Federal government of 

Switzerland, 645. 



INDEX 



703 



Ferdinand I., 458. 
Ferdinand, King of Naples 

and Sicily, 659. 
Ferdinand and Isabella, of 

Spain, 460. 
326. Feudal conception of 
sovereignty and feudal 
hierarchy, 396-597. 
521. Feudalisation in Ger- 
many and France, 618- 

620. 
346. First crusade, 425-426. 
176. First Punic war, 224. 
377. First Spanish power of 

note, 461-462. 
Five mile act, 544. 
Flaminius, 232, 236. 
Flavian amphitheatre (Coli- 
seum), 27. 
473. Flight of the king 

(France,) 568-569. 
Florence, 442. 
Folk -moot, 553. 
Forum Trajanum, 281. 
538. Foundation of the state, 

639—640. 
France, colonies of, 597. 
Francis II., emperor, 622. 
518. Franco-Prussian war, 

593. 616-617, 624. 
Frederick, the Great, 586. 
Frederick William I., 633. 
Frederick William III., 634. 
French-Canadian rebellion, 

686. 
French republic established 

(1870), 594. 
Friedland, battle of, 587. 
Fulvia, 259. 
570 Functions of county 

council, 679-680. 
552. Fundamental laws of 

Norway, 655-657. 
551. Fundamental laws of 

Sweden, 652-655. 



Gaius, 346. 
Galatia, 159. 



225. Galba, Otho, and Vitel- 

lius, 278. 
Galerius, 288. 
Garibaldi, 661. 
Gaspard de Coligny, 511. 
Gauls, 159, et pass. 
180. Gauls defeated, 229. 
Gaza and Jaffa, capture of, 

580. 
Gedrosia, 156. 
George I., Hanoverian king, 

549- 
George, Prince of Denmark, 

548. 
Gela, 189. 
Gelon, 135. 
Gemblou, 507. 
Geneva, 640. 
Genghis Khan, 437. 
Genoa, 203, 442. 
Genseric, 359. 
Gepidas, 361. 
Gerard, Balthasar, 508. 
526. German empire, 624- 

625. 
202. Germanic tribes, 250. 
Germanicus, 271, et seq. 
Germany, 260, 462, 467, 613— 

617. 
Germany, government of, 

617-638. 
516. Germany in the 19th 

century, 613-614. 
525. Germany, united, 622- 

624. 
Gerontes (Elders), 116. 
Gerusia, 223. 
Geryones, 98. 
Geta, 285. 

Ghent, pacification of, 507. 
Ghibellines, 443, 464. 
Gibilites, 81. 
Gideon, 75. 
Glabris, 239. 

290. Gladiators, 349—351. 
206. Gladiators, war of, 254, 

et pass. 
Gladstone, 663, 671. 
Gobryas, 85. 
Godfrey of Bouillon, 425. 



704 



INDEX 



Golden fleece, 99. 

Gomates, 85. 

Gordon, Chinese, 665. 

Goshen, 73. 

9. Government of China, 9. 

27. Government, earliest 

forms of, 31, d seq. 
Government of England, 

665-690. 
Government of France, 594, 

6l °. 5 2 5-533- 
Government of Rome, 299, 

ct seq. 
131. Government of Sparta, 

172. 
27. Government, sources of 

study, 3 1. 
29. Government, various 

conceptions of, 36. 
Governments of Greece, 167, 

et seq. 
200, 260. Gracchi, 247, 315, 

34i. 

Granada, 379. 

Granicus, 88, 155. 

Gratian, 292. 

Grattan, Henry, 550. 

Gravelotte, battle of, 593, 
616. 

461. Great council, 554, 555. 

348. Great militant orders 

- 427-428. 

353. Great schism, 435-437. 

66. Grecian myths, 97. 

Greece, history of, 92-167. 

Greene, 501. 

267. Greek and Roman po- 
litical idea compared, 323- 

324. 

Greek architecture and arts, 
160. 

Greek culture, 185, ct seq. 

146. Greek political admin- 
istration, 184. 

158. Greeks and Romans, 
203. 

Gregory I., pope, 362-367. 

Gregory VII., pope, 414-432. 

Grevy, 596. 

Grey, Lady Jane, 494. 



413. Growth of the Nether- 
lands, 508-509. 
Growth of the towns, 439— 

445- 
Guelphs, 443, 464. 
Guild system, 401. 
Guiscard, Robert, 433. 
442. Gunpowder plot, 534. 
421. Gustavus Adolphus 

5 l6 -5!7- 
Gutenberg, Johannes, 449. 
Gylippus, 151. 

H 

Hades, 98, 103, ct pass. 
Hadrian, 280. 
Halicarnassus, 191. 
Halima, 371. 
Halys, 104. 
Hamburg, 402. 
Hamilcar, 226, 229, et pass. 
Hampden, 539. 

182. Hannibal, 230, et pass. 

183. Hannibal crosses the 
Alps, 231. 

186. Hannibal defeated, 233. 

Hanno, 228. 

358. Hanseatic League, 402, 

443-444. 
Hardenberg, Count, 634. 
Hardrada, King of Norway, 

419. 
Haroun-al-Raschid, 380. 
Hasdrubal, 226, 230, 234, 

244. 
Hassan, 37S. 
Hastings, battle of, 420. 
Hazelrigg, 539. 
Hebert, 574. 
Hebrews, 73, ct seq. 
49. Hebrews, early history, 

73- 
Hector, 1S6, et pass. 
Hektemoroi, 178. 
Helen, 100, 1S5, et pass. 
Helios, 186. 
Hellanicus, 187. 
82. Hellas, no. 
Helle, 99. 



INDEX 



705 



Hellen, no. 

63. Hellenes, 95, 106, in, 

130, et pass. 
Hellenica, 192. 
83. Hellenic migrations, no. 
Helots, 114, 142. 
Hengest, 363. 

Henry III., of England, 450. 
Henry III., king of France, 

5"- 

417. Henry IV., 512-513. 

Henry IV., of Germany, 432. 

Henry V., of England, 451. 

Henry VI., 452. 

Henry VII., 453. 

401. Henry VIII. , King, 489- 
490. 

Henry, count of Anjou, 454. 

Henry of Navarre, 485. 

Henry the Fowler, 263. 

Hephaestus, 103. 

Hera, 97, 102. 

Heraclea, 220. 

67. Heracles, story of, 97, 98, 
100. 

Heraclius, 369, 376. 

HercuJaneum, 279. 

Hercules, 221. 

Hermanaric, 291. 

Hermann, 272. 

Hermes, 103, et pass. 

Herodotus, 60, 68, 137, 143, 
et pass. 

71. Heroic age, 10 1. 

148. Hesiod and Pindar, 187. 

Hesperides, 98. 

Hestia, 103. 

Hetaira?, 199. 

Hieron, 188, et pass. 

Hillah, 68. 

Hipparchus, 125. 

Hippias, 125, et seq. 

Hippolyte, 98. 

150. Historians, 191. 

285. Historians, 343, et seq. 

270. History and develop- 
ment of the office of 
praetor, 327. 

1. History, definition of, 3. 

History of Rome, 203-352. 



Hohenlohe, 586. 

Holies, 539. 

Holy League, 489. 

72. Homer's Iliad, 102. 

Homer's Odyssey, 10 1, 102. 

Honorius, 293. 

Hooker, 501. 

Horace, 338. 

Horatii, 209. 

Horsa, 363. 

Hortensius, 341. 

Hosain, 378. 

Hospitalers, 427. 

Hostillius, 210. 

562. House of Commons, 
669-672. 

379. House of Hohenstaufen, 
464-465. 

563. Houseof Lords, 672-673. 
Howard, Catherine, 491. 
Hubertsburg, peace of, 566. 
Hugh Capet, 422. 
Huguenots, 510, 511. 

362. Humanism, 446—448. 
Hundred-moot, 553. 
366. Hundred Years' war, 
45 I -452-. 

380. Hussites, 465-466. 
Huss, John, 465. 
Hutten, Ulrich von 480. 
Hydarnes, 139. 
Hyperides, 159. 
Hystaspes, 85, 87. 



I 



338. Iconoclasts, 411— 412, 

5.°4- 

Ictinus, 143, 144. 

Ildico, 297. 

Illyrians, 155. 

Imbros, 132. 

531. Imperial chancellor, 631. 

523. Imperial title and its in- 
fluence, 621—622. 

Imperium proconsulare, 270. 

579. India, 689-690. 

330. Influence of church and 
empire upon feudal states, 
403-405. 



706 



INDEX 



359. Influence of cities upon 
politics, 444. 

559. Influence of parliament 
upon the executive (Eng- 
land), 666-668. 

263. Influence of provinces 
(Rome), 319. 

275. Influence of Roman law 
upon municipal organ- 
isations, ^23- 

78 Influence of sacred 
games (Greece), 106. 

544. Initiative and refer- 
endum, 643-645. 

Innocent III., pope, 434, 454. 

Ino, 99. 

376, 393- Inquisition, 481— 
482, 561. 

318. Inroads of the North- 
men in France and Britain, 
386-388. 

Institutiones, 332, 347. 

Insubres, 229. 

115. Internal wars (Greece), 

i45- 

343. Introductory (Cru- 
sades), 421—422. 

313. Invasion of France, 
battle of Tours, 381-382. 

170. Invasion of the Gauls, 
2 j 7. 

243. Invasion of the Huns, 

295- 
242. Invasion of Italy by 

Alaric, 293. 
373. Invasion of Italy by 

Charles VIII., 257-258. 
364. Invention of printing, 

449-450. 
Ionians, 86, 95, in, 114, ct 

pass. 
Ionic architecture, 161, ct 

pass. 
Ipsus, battle of, 157. 
457. Ireland, 550. 
Irenasus, 283. 
Israel, 73. 
Issus, 88, 155. 
382. Italy from 1200 until 

1450, 467. 



554. Italy in the 19th cen- 
tury, 659-662. 
Ithaca, 187. 
Ithome, 119. 
Ivan the Terrible, 557. 
Ivan III., the Great, 557. 
Izdubar (Gilgamesh), 98. 



443. James I. and Parlia- 
ment, 534-53 6 - 
James II., the Pretender, 

547- 

Japygians, 205. 

Jason, 100. 

Jebus, 76. 

Jena, battle of, 586. 

Jephthah, 75. 

Jericho, 75. 

Jerome of Prague, 465. 

Jerusalem, 63, 78, 258. 

Jews, revolt of, 281. 

Joan of Arc (Maid of Or- 
leans), 452. 

John, King of England, 450. 

John XXIII., pope, 465. 

Josephine, 488. 

Josephus, 80. 

Joshua, 75. 

Joyous entry, 558. 

Judah, 76, ct scq. 

511. Judicial system of 
France, 608-609. 

Jugurtha, 249, el scq. 

201. Jugurthine war, 249. 

Julia, daughter of Augustus, 
270. 

239 Julian the Apostate, 
199, 290. 

Julius Cresar, 341. 

Juno, 211, 219. 

Jupiter, 211. 

Jupiter Ultor, 334. 

273. Jurists and juriscon- 
sults, 330. 

271. Jus civile and Jus gen- 
tium, 328. 

Jus Respondcndi, 331. 



INDEX 



707 



568. Justices of the peace, 

677-678. 
Justinian, [99, 3 \<>, 369. 
Juvenal, ,u°- 



Karl XIII., King of Sweden, 

652. 
Khadijah, 371. 
Khaled, 376, 377. 
Khartoum, 665. 
556. King of Italy and the 

Pope, 662. 
31. Kinship, 43. 
Kolin, battle of, 565. 
309. Koran, 372. 374-375, 

ct seq. 
Kristian, King of Norway, 

652. 
Kublai Khan, 437. 
Kudur-Nakhunta, 61. 
309. Koran, 372 ct seq., 274 

-375- 

L 
Lacedaemonians, 115. 
87. Lack of political unity 

(Greece), 112. 
Ladislaus, King of Naples 

and Hungary, 465. 
Lassa majestas, 273. 
Lagthing, 657. 
Lais, 200. 
Lamachus, 151. 
Lamian war, 159. 
Langton, Stephen, 434. 
42. Language and literature 

(Chalda?a, etc.), 64. 
19. Language and literature 

(Egypt), 21. 
7. Language, Chinese spoken, 

8. 
6. Languagc.Chincse written, 

7- 
Lan^ue d'Oil or French 

proper, 459. 
Langue d' Oc or Provencal, 

l^". 45<>- 
La Rochelle, 513. 
420. Last combat between 



Protestantism and Cath- 
olicism in Europe, 514- 
516. 

ios. Last days of the repub- 
lic, Rome, 253. 

Lateran Council, 435. 

Latimer, Bishop, 495. 

Latin Empire (1204), 434. 

Latium, 204. 

Laud, William, 538. 

415. Leaders, 510-51 1. 

320. Leagues of villages 
(Germany), 390. 

Lefebre, 510. 

163. Legends, 208. 

503. Legislation and "Bu- 
reau" system, 603-604. 

547. Legislative body (Switz- 
erland), 647. 

537. Legislature (Germany), 
636. 

396. Leipzig, battle of, 486- 

487. 517- 

Lemarites, 81. 

Lenthen, battle of, 565. 

Leonidas, 138. 

Leopold, Duke of Austria, 
429. 

Leo, pope, 297. 

Leo X., pope, 478. 

396. Lepanto, battle of, 
486-487. 

Lepidus, ^Emilius, 266. 

Lesbos, 146, 148. 

Le Tellier, 524. 

Leto, 103. 

"Lex Sacrata," 215. 

Leyden, siege of, 506. 

256. Licinian laws, 310. 

Licinius Stolo, 310. 

Liguria, 204. 

Lipara, 225. 

8. Literature, Chinese, 9. 

409. Literature of Elizabeth's 
time, 500—501. 

281. Literature, Roman, 337. 

Livy, 338, 339. 343- 

334. Local and unifying in- 
fluences (Germany), 406- 
407. 



708 



INDEX 



535. Local organisation be- 
fore 1872 (Germany), 634- 

635- 
432. Local self-government 

(France), 526-527. 
Lollards, or babblers, 453. 
299. Lombards, 361-363. 
Lombard y, 204. 
574. London, government of, 

684-685. 
567. Lord lieutenant, 677. 
Lorenzo the Magnificent, 443. 
Lothair, 462. 
Louis VII., 427-428. 
Louis XL, of France, 457. 
418. Louis XIII. , 513-514, 

536. 
Louis XIV., 520, ct pass. 

428. Louis XIV. takes reins 
in his own hands, 521-524. 

429. Louis XV., 524-525 
Louis XVIII. , 592-595. 
Louis Capet, citizen, 570. 
Louis, grandson of Charles 

the Great, 462. 
Louis Philippe, Duke of 

Orleans, 592, 595, 614. 
Louis, Prince of Conde, 511. 
Loyola, Ignatius, 482. 
Lucan, 277. 
Luceres, 206. 
Lucius Caesar, grandson of 

Augustus, 271. 
Lucius Cassius Longinus. 250. 
Lucius Tarquinius Priscus, 

210 
Lucius Tarquinius Superbus, 

210. 
Lucius Verus, 282. 
Lucullus, 257. 
Ludwig the Child, 463. 
Liibeck, 402. 

Lutzen, battle of, 517, 590. 
Lupercalia, 264. 
Luther, Martin, 479. 
90. Lycurgus, 115, 116. 
Lyons and Toulon, uprising, 

576. 
Lysander, 152. 
Lysias, 143. 



M 

Maccabees, 78. 

Macella, 225. 

Machiavelli, 443. 

Maerinus, 286. . 

Magabazos, 86. 

387. Magellan, 432,474-475. 

Magianism, 89. 

365. Magna Charta Liber- 

tatum, 450-45 1. 
192. Magnesia, battle of, 

158, 238, 239, ct pass. 
Magnus, Albertus, 445. 
Mago, 230. 
Maharbal, 233. 
Maia, 103. 

Maintenon, Madame de, 524. 
Malabar, 474. 
Mandeville, 475. 
Mandrocles, 86. 
Manlius Vulso Longus, 226. 
477. Marat, 572-573. 

103. Marathon, battle of, 
86, 128, ct pass. 

104. Marathon, results of 
battle of, 130. 

Marathonian bull, 99. 

Marcia, 2S4. 

Marcus, 349. 

Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, 

280, 282, ct scq. 
Mardonius, 141. 
Marengo, battle of, 582. 
Margaret, Duchess of Parma, 

5°3- 
Maria Louisa, 589. 
Maria Theresa, 564. 
Marie Antoinette, 571. 
Marie de' Medici, 513. 
Marius, 249, ct pass. 
204. Marius and Sulla, 251. 
Marius Manlius, 21S. 
Mark Antony, 341. 
522. Markgraf and the Mark, 

620—621. 
Marlowe, 501. 
34. Marriage, 52. 
Mars, 211. 
203. Marsic war, 251. 



INDEX 



709 



391. Martin Luther, 479-480. 

Mary of Guise, 40 7. 

406. Mary Stuart, '497—498. 

Masinissa, 237, 242, 243. 

Massalia, 113. 

Massilia, 256. 

Massiva, 249. 

Maurice of Saxony, 485. 

Maurice, son of William the 
Silent, 508. 

Maximianus, 288. 

Maximilian, Duke of Ba- 
varia, 515. 

Maximinus, 287. 

Maximus, 292, 297. 

Mazarin, Cardinal, 521. 

Medes, kingdom of the, 70. 

Media, 84. 

Mediaeval history, 353-468. 

Medici, 443. 

24. Medicine and embalming 
(Egypt), 27. 

Medina, 373. 

Meditations of Marcus Aure- 
lius, 283. 

208. Mediterranean pirates, 
256. 

Megacles, 122, et pass. 

Megalopolis, 168. 

Megara, 123, 149, 168. 

Megistias, 139. 

Melius, 217. 

Memnon, 155. 

Memorabilia, 192. 

Menelaus, 100, 185, et pass. 

Menenius, 214. 

37. Mesopotamian region, 

59- 
Messalina, 276. 
Messenia, 149. 
93. Messenian wars, 118. 
Metaurus, 234. 
Metcllus, 253, ct pass. 
Metoici, 184. 
Metternich, Prince, 659. 
Metz, 616, 617. 
Michael Angelo, 443. 
Milan, 288. 

105. Miltiades, 131, et pass. 
Milton, John, 542. 



Minerva, 211. 

Minos, 99, 115. 

Minotaur, 99. 

Minucius, 217. 

Mithridates, 251, 381, et pass. 

209. Mithridatic war, 257. 

Mnesicles, 143, 144. 

Moawiyah, 378. 

298. Modern civilisation, 

355- 

Modern history, 469-690. 
306. Mohammed and the 

Saracens, 370. 
Mohammed II., the Great, 

439- 
310. Mohammed's successors, 

375-378. 

Moloch, 223. 

Moltke, 615. 

354. Mongols, 437-438. 

Monk, George, 541. 

" Mons Sacer," 215, ct seq. 

Montcalm, 550. 

Montezuma, 475. 

Montfort, Simon de, 451-455. 

Moore, Thomas, 492. 

Moreau, 582. 

Morton, 489. 

Moses, 74 et seq. 

Moslem power, 370, 382. 

Moss, convention of, 651. 

305. Most important em- 
perors of the East, 369-370. 

Mount Algidus, 217. 

Mount Athos, 86, 127, 136. 

Mount Hira, 372. 

Mount Nebo, 75. 

Mount Sipylus, 239. 

Mount Taurus, 240. 

Muhlback, battle of, 485. 

Munster and Osnabriick, 518. 

Mummius, 241. 

434. Municipal self-govern- 
ment (France), 528-529. 

Murat, 586. 

Muret, 456. 

Mycale, 141. 

Mycel-gemot, 554. 

Mycenae, 185. 

Myke, 225. 



7io 



INDEX 



Mytilene, 148. 

N 

Nabonadius, 64, 70, el scq. 
Nabopolassar, 63, 73. 
Nantes, edict of, 513; re- 
voked, 522. 
Napoleon, abdication of, 500. 
487. Napoleon's campaigns, 

584-587. 
Napoleon, code, 583. 
490. Napoleon's decline, 

589-592. 
486. Napoleon, emperor of 

France, 583—584. 
Napoleon III., emperor, 596. 
493. Napoleon's influence, 

594-595. 
483. Napoleon in Italy and 

Egypt, 5 7 8-5 So. 
Napoleon's landing at CanneSi 

59 1 - 

489. Napoleon's second 

marriage, 588-589. 
Napoleon surrenders at 

Rochefort, 592. 
Napoleon, first consul, 582. 
485. Napoleon's victories 

and laws, 582-583. 
Narcissus, 284. 
Narva, battle of, 560. 
498. National assembly, 599- 

600. 
Naucrarius, 182. 
Naucratis, 114. 
Navarre, Henry of, 508. 
Naxos, 113. 
Nebuchadnezzar, 62, 63, 72, 

78. 
138. Need for constitutional 

reform (Greece), 177. 
Nema?a, lion of, 98. 
156. Neo-Platonism, 198. 
224. Nero, 163, 276, ct scq. 
Nerva, 280. 
Nestor, 100. 
Neuchatel, 640. 
142. New citizens (Greece), 

180-182. 



324. New kingship (Ger- 
many), 394-395- 

143. New tribes (Greece), 
182. 

Nicsea, 426. 

Nice, peace of, 484. 

Nicholas, czar, 610. 

Nicholas II., pope, 432. 

118. Nicias, events leading 
to the peace of, 148. 

Nicias, general, 150, 151. 

Nicodemia, 288. 

Nicopolis, 438. 

Niebelungen Lied, 467. 

515. Nihilism, 612. 

Nile, 73. 

Nineveh, 72. 

Nineveh, battle of, 370. 

Niobe, 165. 

Nola, 234. 

145. Non-citizen class 

(Athens), 184. 

Nord Mark, 620. 

Noricum, 250. 

Norman conquest, 41S. 

341. Normans, 418-421. 

North German Union, 615. 

317. Northmen, 385-386, 38S. 

North Wales, 279. 

Novelke, 3337347- 

Numa Pompilius, 209. 

Numitor, 208. 



O 



O'Connell, Daniel, 664. 

Octavia, 268. 

Octavia, daughter of Claudius 

and Messalina, 277. 
Octavian, 339. 
Octavianus, Caius Julius 

Caesar, Augustus, 269, 317, 

ct scq. 
Octavius, Caius, 266, ct pass. 
Odelsthing, 657. 
Odenatus, 287. 
Odeon, 194. 
294. Odoacer and the Heruli, 

357- 
Odysseus (Ulysses), 100,101. 



INDEX 



71! 



Odyssey, 185, ct pass. 

504. Officials in a French 
department, 604-605. 

Ohud, battle of, 373. 

Okhos, 87, 88. 

456. Old French and Indian 
war; the American colo- 
nies, 549—550. 

259. Oligarchy (Rome), 314. 

440. Oliver Cromwell, 539- 
540. 

74. Olympian council, 103. 
Olynthus, 154. 

75. Oracles, 104. 

151, 284. Orators, 195, 341, 
it seq. 

26. Organisation and gov- 
ernment (Egypt), 29. 

564. Organisation and juris- 
diction of the law courts, 
since 1879 (England), 673- 

675- 

520. Organisation of the 
Frankish monarchy, 618. 

25. Origin of the Egvptians, 
28. 

Orleans, Duke of, 572. 

Orloff, 562. 

Ormuzd, 89. 

Orontes, 157. 

Osman Pasha, 611. 

Ost Mark, 620. 

100. Ostracism, 126, ct pass. 

Ostrogoths, 291. 

Oswy, King of Northumbria, 
367. 

Othman, 377. 

Otho, emperor, 278. 

Otto I., the Great, 463. 

Otto IV., Emperor of the 
Holy Roman Empire, 434. 

484. Overthrow of the di- 
rectory, 580-582. 

Ovid, 338, 339. 

199. Owners and labourers 
(Rome), 246. 



Pact of 181 5, 640. 



Palatine Hill, 206. 

Palestine, 73. 

Palmyra, 287. 

Pandects, 332-347- 

Pantheon, 334. 

Panticapseum, 114. 

3r6. Papacy's claim to tem- 
poral power, 385. 

389. Papal dominion in the 
sixteenth century, 477- 
478. 

Papal power, 409-418. 

Papinian, 346. 

Papinianus, 285. 

Papirius Carbo, 250. 

Paris, 100, 185, ct pass. 

Paris, peace of, 610. 

Paris, siege of, 617. 

Paris, treaty of, 550. 

572. Parish (England), 681- 
683. 

Paros, 132. 

Parrhasius, 143, 166. 

Parthamaspates, 281. 

Parthenon, 144, ct pass. 

Parthians, 280, ct pass. 

300. Passing of the Anglo- 
Saxons into Britain, 363- 

3 6 5- 
Paul IV., pope, 481. 
Paulus, 346. 
Pausanias, 141. 
Pavia, battle of, ,483. 
435. Pays d'Etats, 529- 

53°- 
Peasants' revolt in Germany, 

480. 
Pedro II., of Aragon, 455. 
62. Pelasgians, 94, no. 
Pelasgian Zeus, 104. 
Peloponnesian confederation, 

„ 145- 

Peloponnesian war, 145. 

Pelops, 96. 

Pelusium, 269, 377. 

Penelope, 101, 187 

Pepin, 382. 

Perdiccas, 156. 

144. Pericles, 127, 143, 183, 

ct pass. 



712 



INDEX 



113. Pericles, the age of, 

i43- J 44 
Periceci, 114, et pass. 
462. Permanent council, 

(England), 555. 
Perperna, 253, 254. 
Persephone, 103 
58. Persian empire, end of, 

88, 151. 
55. Persians, 84, et seq. 
Persius, 340. 
Pertinax, 285. 
Pescennius Niger, 285. 
Peter III., 562, 565. 
467. Peter and Charles XII., 

559-561. 
466. Peter the Great, 558- 

559- 
345. Peter the Hermit, 424- 

425- 
Petrarch, 443, 447. 
Phaecians, 187. 
Pharaoh, 73, 75. 
Pharnaces, 258, 263. 
Pharos, lighthouse, 157. 
Pharsalia, 262, 342. 
Phidias, 143, 164. 
Philip, Augustus of France, 

428. 
395. Philip II., 485-486, 503, 

508. 
Philip III., of Spain, 4S7. 
Philip IV., the Fair, 456. 
Philip VI., of France, 451, 

„ 457- 

Philip, the Handsome, 482. 

123. Philip of Macedon, 88, 

153, et pass. 
Philippi, 154, 267. 
Philippics, 155, 342. 
Philippus, 358. 
Philo, 80, 198. 
152, 286. Philosophers, 194, 

344-346. 
54. Phoenicians, 98, et pass. 
Phrygia, 137, 152. 
Phryne, 200. 
Phrixus, 99, 100. 
Picenum, 204, 232. 
Picts, 363. 



Pindar, 187. 

Piraeus, 193. 

98. Pisistratus, 124, et pass. 

Piso, 277. 

Pizarro, Francisco, 476. 

Placentium, 229, 232. 

Platiea, 87, 141, 146, et 

SCiJ. 

Plataeans, 128. 

Plato, 143, et pass. 

252. Plebeians and tribunes, 

3°4- 
Plevna, siege of, 611. 
Pliny, the Elder, 344. 
Po, 204, 229. 
Poictiers, 382. 
Polemarchos, 175. 
88. Political growth of 

Greece, 113. 
430. Political history of 

France, 525. 
550. Political history (Swe- 
den and Norway), 650-652. 
91. Political ideal of Sparta, 

116. 
247. Political institutions of 

Rome, 299. 
Pollentia, 293. 
Polycarp, 283. 
Polychares, 118. 
Polycletus, 143, 144. 
Polygnotus, 143, 144. 
Polyphemus, 186. 
Polyxena, 166. 
Pommerania, 297. 
Pompeii, 254, 279. 
Pompey, 79, 253, 261, et 

pass. 
214. Pompey's defeat at 

Pharsalia, 262. 
210. Pompey's triumph, 258. 
Pomponius, 346. 
Pontiffs, 212. 
Pontius Cominius, 21S. 
Pontus, 156. 
352. Popes supreme; decline 

of their temporal power, 

432-435- 
Poppasa Sabina, 277. 
Porto Rico, 472. 



INDEX 



713 



Poseidon, 103. 

Poseidonia, 98. 

Postidiea, 145, 154. 

262. Power of the magis- 
trates, 3 18. 

Postumius Albinus, 249. 

Pra?tor peregrinus and pra?tor 
urbanus, 328. 

Pragmatic sanction, 564. 

Prague, peace of, 615. 

Praxiteles, 143, et ptiss. 

Priam, 10 1, 166, et pass. 

459. Primitive Teutonic in- 
stitutions, 551-552. 

561. Privy council, 669. 

Probus, 287. 

Procopius, Hussite leader, 
466. 

Prometheus, 166. 

308. Prophet's life, flight, 
and death, 371-373. 

Propylae, 194, et pass . 

414. Protestants in France, 
509-510. 

Protogenes, 167. 

538. Province and Kreis 
(Circle), 636-638. 

258. Provinces, 312. 

Prussia, 562-566. 

$33. Prussia, 632-634. 

Prusias, 236. 

Prytaneum, 112. 

Ptolemies, kingdom of, 156. 

Ptolemy, 157. 

Ptolemy II., 158. 

Ptolemy Soter, 158. 

Ptolemy Philadelphus, T58. 

Pultowa, battle of, 560. 

Punjab, 86. 

449. Puritan literature, 542- 

543- 
Puteoli, 253. 

Pydna, battle of, 159, 238. 
Pygmalion, 221. 
Pylos, 149. 

p ym. 539- 

Pyrenees, 231, et pass. 
Pyrrhus, 220, 221. 
Pythagoras, 195. 
Pythia, 104. 



Q 

454. Queen Anne, 548-549. 
Queen Margaret of Denmark, 

651- 

501. Question and interpella- 
tion, 602—603. 

Quirinus, 211. 

R 

Radagaisus, 293. 
Rastadt, treaty of, 549. 
Ramnes, 205, 206. 
Ravaillac, 513. 
Raymond, Count of Toulouse, 

455- 
Reform bills of 1832 and 1867 

(England), 663. 
513. Reforms (Russia), 610— 

6ir. 
249. Reforms of Servius 

Tellius, 300, 
534. Reforms of Stein, 634. 
Reggio, 203. 
Regicides, 543. 
177. Regulus, 225, et seq. 
Rehoboam, 77. 
476. Reign of terror, 57 1 — 

572. 

356. Relation of a city to its 
overlord, 439-441. 

85. Relation of the colony 
to the mother city (Greece) , 
in. 

130. Relation of the different 
classes (Sparta), 170. 

546. Relations of the exec- 
utive to the legislative 
body (Switzerland), 647. 

530. Relative powers of the 
several states in the 
Reichstag, 629. 

44. Religion (Chaldaea), 67. 
Religion (China), 12. 
Religion (Egypt), 24. 

73. Religion (Greece), 102. 

53. Religion (Hebrews) ,79. 

59. Religion (Persians), 88. 

164. Religion (Rome), 210. 



7H 



INDEX 



174. Religion and character 
(Carthage), 223. 

Remus, 208. 

363. Renaissance, 448-449. 

475. Republic, French, 570- 

57 1 - 
Republican baptisms, mar- 
riages, and battues, 572- 

577- 

Requesens, 506. 

175. Resources of Rome and 
Carthage, 223. 

448. Restoration of the 

Stuarts, 541-542. 
Restoration of the Western 

Empire, 382-385. 
257. Revival of the power of 

the Senate, 311. 
Revival of learning, 445-450. 
Revolt of the Netherlands, 

501-509. 
Rhea, 103 
Rhea Silvia, 208. 
Rhegium, 113, 255. 
Rhenish League, 402. 
Rhine, 260. 

Rhodes, 111, 156, ct pass. 
Rhone, 204. 
Richard I., of England (Cceur 

de Lion), 428. 
Richard III., of England, 

453- 

419. Richelieu, 514. 

Richelieu, Cardinal, 513, 521. 

Ridley, Bishop, 495. 

Rienzi, Tribune of Rome, 
467. 

303. Rise and influence of 
Monasticism, 368. 

212. Rise of Caesar, 260. 

410. Rise of the Dutch re- 
public, 501. 

355. Rise of the Ottoman 
empire, 438-439. 

469. Rise of the power of 
Prussia; Frederick Wil- 
liam, the Great Elector, 

562-563- 
357. Rise of the three chief 
Italian cities, 441-443. 



361. Rise of the Universities 

446. 
Rizzio, David, 498. 
Robert, Duke of Normandy, 

425- 
480. Robespierre, 573, 574- 

576. 
Roderick, 379. 
Roland, 384. 
Roland, Madame, 572. 
Rollo, 418. 
276. Roman architecture, 

„ 333- 

Roman architecture, culture, 

and social life, 333—352. 
433. Roman and non-Roman 

municipalities, 527-528. 
219. Roman empire, 269, it 

seq. 
Roman empire ended, 585. 
287. Roman law, 346-347. 
336. Roman law in England, 

408-409. 
Rome, 203-528. 
Romulus, 208, 209. 
Roncesvalles, 384. 
Rossbach, battle of, 565. 
Rotten boroughs, 670. 
Rubicon, 251, 261. 
Rudolf of Swabia, 433. 
Rudolph II., 515, 555. 
Runnymede, 450. 
Rurik, 557. 

Russia, 557-562, 610, ct seq. 
514. Russia and Turkey, 

611— 612. 
Sabines, 204, 209. 



77. Sacred games (Greece), 
105. 

78. Sacred games, influence 
of, 106. 

Saguntum, 230. 

Said, 377. 

Saladin, 429. 

Salamis, 87, 102, 123, ct pass. 

1 10. Salamis, battle of, 140. 

Salisbury, Lord, 678. 



INDEX 



715 



Salmanasar, 72. 

Samaria, 78. 
Samaritans, 76 . 

Samarkand, 438. 

Samnites, 204, et pass. 

171. Samnite wars, 220. 

Samnium, 204. 

Samson, 75. 

Samuel, 75, 76. 

San Salvador, 472. 

San Stefano, peace of, 611. 

Sapor, 287. 

Saracus, 62. 

Sardinia, 223, 228. 

Sardis, 84, 86, 127, 136, 137. 

Sargon I., 61, 65, 72, 78. 

283. Satirists, 339, et seq. 

Satyre, 165. 

Saul, 76. 

383. Savonarola, 457, 468. 

Scheria, 187. 

Schmalkalden, league of, 484. 

Schoeffer, 449. 

360. Scholasticism, 445—446. 

Schwyz, 639. 

Scipio, 225, 231, ct pass. 

187. Scipio Africanus, 235. 

508. Scope of administrative 
divisions (France) , 606-60 7 . 

Scotism, 446. 

Scots, 363. 

Scotus, Duns, 445. 

Scylla, 186. 

Scythia, 131, 159. 

246. Seat of empire passes 
from Rome, 298. 

Sebastopol, fall of, 610. 

166. Secession of the ple- 
beians (Rome), 214. 

347. Second crusade, 427. 

179. Second Punic war, 228. 

Second Republic (France), 
592. 

Second triumvirate, 266. 

Sedan, 593, 616. 

221. Sejanus, 273, 274. 

Seleucus, 157. 

Sclinus in Cilicia, 281. 

Sempronius Gracchus, 234. 

Sempronius Longus, 232. 



251, 497- Senate, 303, 598- 

599- 
Seneca, 277, 344, et seq. 
Sennacherib, 72. 
Sentinum, 220. 
266. Separation between 

East and West, 322. 
Sepoy mutiny 664. 
232. Septimius Severus, 285. 
Septimontium, 206. 
Sertprius, 253. 
Sertorius Macro, 274. 
Servius Tullius, 210. 
Seven weeks' war, 615, 624, 

662. 
Seven years' war, 564. 
274. Several Roman codes, 

Seville, 379. 

Seymour, Jane, 491. 

Sextius, tribune, 310. 

Shakespeare, 501. 

Shamanism, 67. 

566. Sheriff (England), 676- 
677. 

198. Sicily and the servile 
wars, 245. 

Sidon, 82. 

Sidonians, Si. 

Sidney, 501, 508. 

Sigambri, 360. 

Sigismund, Emperor, 465. 

Silanus, 250. 

Sinai, 75. 

Sippara, 84. 

Sirmium, 288. 

411. Situation and social 
conditions in the Nether- 
lands, 501-505. 

Skylax, 86. 

Slavery (Greece), 201. 

291. Slavery (Rome), 351- 

35 2 - 

229. So-called "five good 
emperors, " 280. 

289. Social position of wo- 
man (Rome), 348. 

157. Social position of wo- 
man in Greece; amuse- 
ments, slavery, 199. 



yi6 



INDEX 



Socrates, 143, et pass. 
Sogdianos, 87. 
Soissons, 360. 
Soli (Pompeiopolis), 257. 
51. Solomon, 76-77. 
9 7 . Solon , 121, et seq. 

139. Solon's economic re- 
forms, 178. 

140. Solon's political re- 
forms, 179. 

141. Solon's work the basis 
for later reforms, 180. 

Solyman, the Magnificent, 
Sultan, 483. 

540. Sonderbund war (Switz- 
erland), 640-641. 

Sophia of Hanover, 549. 

153. Sophists, 195. 

Sophocles, 143, et pass. 

527. Sovereignty of the 
German empire, 625. 

Spain, 460-462, 482-487, 
23°. 2 35. et pass. 

388. Spain in America, 475- 
476. 

375. Spain; union of Castile 
and Aragon, 460-461. 

407. Spanish Armada, 498- 
499. 

89. Sparta, 100, 106, 114, et 
pass. 

92. Sparta, a soldier state, 
116. 

Spartacus, 254, 255. 

129. Spartan citizen-garri- 
son, 170. 

133. Spartan constitution 

*73- 
Spartiatae, 170. 
Spencer, 501. 
Sphacteria, 149. 

509. Sphere of the council of 
state (France), 608. 

510. Sphere of the prefectu- 
ral council (France), 608. 

Spread of Christianity, 365- 

37°- 
Stamford Bridge, 419. 
36. State, evolution of the, 

55- 



437. States-General, 531-532. 

St. Augustine, 366. 

416. St. Bartholomew's Day, 

St. Bernard, 427. 

Stein, Baron von, 634. 

Stephen IT., pope, 385. 

St. Helena, 592. 

Stilicho, 293. 

Stoics, 329, et pass. 

Storthing, 656. 

67. Story of Heracles, 97. 

Strabo, 475. 

Strategus, 183. 

Strode, 539. 

1 o 1 . Struggle between Greece 

and Persia, 127. 
Strymon, 138. 
Stuart, Mary, 508. 
Stymphalian birds, 98. 
Sulla, 252, 259, 341. 
Sulmo, 339. 
Sulpicius, 218. 
Susa, 61, 137, 156. 
Susiana, 61, 157. 
Sweden and Norway, 650- 

658. 
Swiss confederation, 639. 
549. Swiss judicial system, 

649-650. 
Syagrius, 361. 
Sybaris, 113. 
Symposium, 201. 
Syphax, 237. 

Syracuse, 113, 151, et pass. 
Syria, 155, et pass. 
Syrtus, 223. 



168. Tables of laws ; the De- 
cemvirs, 215-217. 

Tabor, 466. 

Taborites, 466. 

Tacitus, 287, 343. 

Talmud, 79. 

Tamerlane, or Timour the 
Lame, 437. 

Tancred, 425. 

12. Taoism, 13. 



INDEX 



717 



Tarentum, 113, 204, 220, et 
pass. 

Tarquins, 210. 

Taus, 466. 

Taygetus, 117, ct pass. 

Telamon, 229. 

Templars, 427. 

277. Temples (Roman), 334. 

Terentius Varro, 233. 

189. Terms of peace (second 
Punic war), 237. 

193. Terms of peace (war 
with Macedonia), 240. 

Tetzel, John, 479. 

Teutoboch, 251. 

Teutoburg forest, 272. 

Teutones, 250. 

Teutonic knights, 427. 

Teutonic political institu- 
tions, 389-409. 

Teutonic tribes, 357-365. 

Thapsus, 263. 

Thargelia, 199. 

Thasos, 142. 

Thebes, 135, 146. 

107. Themistocles, 133, ct 
pass. 

Theodoric, 295. 

295. Theodoric becomes mas- 
ter of Italy, 357-35 8 - 

241. Theodosius the Great, 
292. 

Thermaic gulf, 138. 

Thermopylae, 87, 135, 239, et 
pass. 

109. Thermopylae, defence of, 
138. 

68. Theseus, 98, et seq. 

Thesmotheta\ 176 

Thespians, 140. 

Thessalia, 99, 102, 135, 138. 

Thessalians, 1 10 

Thetes, 179, et seq. 

Thiers, 594, 596. 

349. Third crusade, 428-430. 

196. Third Punic war, 242. 

494. Third republic, 595-596. 

Thomism, 446. 

Thor, 376. 

Thracians, 127, et pass. 



474. Three parties, 569-570. 

Thucydides, 115, 143, et pass. 

Tiber, 204, ct pass. 

220. Tiberius, 272, et pass. 

Tibur, 288. 

Ticinus, 231, 235. 

Tiglathi-Adar, 62. 

Tie;lath-Pileser II , 62. 

Tiglath-Pileser III., 72. 

Tigris, 70. 

422. Tilly, 517-518. 

Tilsit, treaty of, 587. 

Timocracy, 112. 

Timon, 150. 

Tiryus, 97. 

Tithmanes, 143. 

Tities, 206. 

227. Titus, Emperor, 278, et 
seq. 

Titus Tatius, 209. 

Tolbiac, battle of, 366. 

Toledo, 379. 

Torquemada, Tomas de, 461. 

Tostig, 419. 

Totleben, general, 610. 

Toulouse, 456. 

Tours, 381. 

328. Towns and feudalism, 
401. 

Trafalgar, battle of, 585. 

Trajan, 280, 281. 

Trajanopolis, 281. 

250. Transition to the repub- 
lican regime, 301. 

Trasimenus, 232, 234. 

Treaty of Paris, (1763), 525. 

424. Treaty of Westphalia, 
518-519. 

Trebia, 232, 234. 

Trent, council of, 481. 

Treves, 288. 

Treviso, 442. 

304. Trials by ordeal, 368- 

369-. 
Tribonian, 347. 
Tribuni plebis, 214. 
Tribunitia potestas, 270. 
Trinidad, 478. 

280. Triumphal arches, 337. 
Trcezen, 98, 168. 



7i8 



INDEX 



70. Trojan war, story of, 

100. 
Troubadours, 459. 
Trouveurs, 459. 
Troy, 100, 1 01. 
181. Truceless war, 229. 
398. Tudors and the English 

reformation, 487-48S. 
Tullus Hostilius, 209. 
Turanian power, 437-439. 
254. Twelve tables, 307. 
147. Two epics of ancient 

Greece, 185. 
Tyranny, 112. 

98. Tyrant Pisistratus, 124. 
235. Tyrants, 287. 
Tyre, 63, 82, 155, et pass. 
Tyrtaeus, 119. 

U 

Ulfilas, 365. 

Ulm, battle of, 584. 

Ulpian, 346. 

Ulysses (Odysseus), 100, et 

seq. 
Umbrians, 204, et pass. 
Union of Calmar, 651. 
Unterwalden, 639. 
Ur, 73. 

Urban II., pope, 424. 
Uri, 639. 
Utica, 243. 
Utrecht, treaty of, 549. 



Valerian, 287. 

Valerius, 214. 

Valens 291, 365. 

Valentinian, 295. 

Valmy, battle of, 570. 

245. Vandals, 297. 

297. Vandals, 359-360. 

Varus, 272. 

386. Vasco da Gama, 473- 

474, et pass. 
Vase of Soissons, 361. 
Veii, 218. 
Venetia, 204. 



Venice, 441. 

Venus, 100. 

Venus of Cnidus, 200. 

Venusia, 233, 339. 

Vercellae, 251. 

Vercingetorix, 260. 

Verona, 293. 

207. Verres, 256. 

Verus, 282. 

226. Vespasianus, 278. 

Vestal virgins, 268. 

Vesuvius, 279. 

Vicenza, 442. 

Victor Emmanuel I., 659. 

Victor Emmanuel II., 660- 
661. 

Vindobona, 283. 

Virgil, 208, et pass. 

Visigoths, 291. 

296. Visigoths and Ostro- 
goths, 35S-359. 

Vitellius, Emperor, 278. 

Volaterra;, 340. 

Volscians, 215. 

Vortigern, 363. 

W 

Wagram, battle of, 588. 
Waldenses (or Vaudois), 510. 
423. Wallenstein, 517, 518. 
Walsingham, Sir Francis, 496. 
War of Austrian succession, 

564- 
206. War of gladiators, 254. 
War of Spanish succession, 

548. 
Warsaw, Grand Duchy of, 

587- 
Wartburg, castle of, 4S0. 
190. War with Macedonia, 

237- 
172. War with Pyrrhus, 220. 
367. Wars of the Roses, 452. 

453- 
Washington, John and 

George, 541. 
Waterloo, battle of, 591. 
Wentworth, Thomas (Earl of 

Strafford), 587. 



INDEX 



719 



Wessex, 387. 

Westphalia, peace of, s°4, 
518. 

453. \\ illiam and Mary, 547— 

' S I s - 
William, Duke of Normandy, 

418. 
William, Frederick, Great 

Elector, 562, 632. 
William George, Elector, 562. 
William of Orange, 505, 546. 
William I., emperor, 614- 

6l 5- 

517. William I. and Bis- 
marck, 614-616. 

412. William the Silent, 505- 
508. 

William III., king, 559. 

Windward group, 472. 

Witena-Gemot, 553-554. 

White Mountain, battle of, 

517- 

Woden, 367. 

Wolf, 187. 

Wolseley, Lord, 665. 

402. Wolsey and Cromwell, 

480-492. 
Wolsey, Thomas, 490. 
Worms, Diet of, 479. 
Worms, Edict of, 480. 
Wulfilla, 365. 
Wycliffe, John, 453. 



X 

Xanthippus, 226. 
Xenophon, 88, 143, et pass. 
Xeres, 379. 
57. Xerxes I., 87. 
Xerxes II., 87. 
108. Xerxes, invasion of 
Greece by, 134. 



Zacharias, pope, 385. 

Zama, 235 et seq. 

Zedekiah, 78. 

Zeno, 329. 

Zenobia, 288. 

Zeus, 97, et pass. 

Zeuxis, 143, 144, 166. 

Zorndorf, 565. 

Zoroastrianism, 88, 89. 

Zurich, 640. 

Zwingli, 481. 

392. Zwingli and Calvin, 
480-481. 

Zwingli, Ulrich, 480. 

Zizka, John, 465. 

Zizka-berg (Zizka' s moun- 
tain), 466. 



